Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 27: As the opening of Udhampur-Katra railway section will result into considerable increase in the number of pilgrims visiting the cave shrines of Shri Mata Vaishnodevi and Shri Shiv Khori and pose many challenges from security point of view, Jammu and Kashmir Police Headquarters has sanctioned 19 additional Close Circuit Television Cameras (CCTVs) for the Katra, Reasi towns and Shiv Khori Shrine for effective surveillance.
With this the number of CCTVs in the entire Reasi district will go up to 52 as 33 are already in place although several of them are presently non-functional. For the non-functional CCTVs, Police Headquarters has engaged Chandigarh-based company to make these operational.
Top police sources told EXCELSIOR that keeping in view constant increase in Vaishnodevi and Shiv Khori pilgrimage during the past some years and expected sharp rise following connectivity of holy town with the rest of the country via train, the Union Home Secretary, Anil Goswami during his recent visit to Katra had stressed for enhancing security and surveillance system by adopting latest scientific technology.
Accordingly, the Director General of Police (DGP), Ashok Prasad got the survey conducted through Reasi Police vis-à-vis the areas which are required to be brought under the surveillance network by way of installing latest version of CCTVs, sources said, adding on the basis of detailed survey Police Headquarters has sanctioned 19 additional Close Circuit Television Cameras for the Reasi district.
Of these additional 19 CCTVs, seven will be installed in Reasi town, five near the Shiv Khori shrine and remaining in the Katra town, sources said, adding towers for these new CCTVs have already been installed and remaining work was going on at a rapid pace in order to make them functional within shortest possible time. Even agreement has been signed between the Police and Power Development Department for round the clock power supply to the CCTVs.
Stating that Chandigarh-based company has been engaged for the installation of the new CCTVs, sources said, “even the task of making operational already installed but non-functional CCTVs has been assigned to this company and a formal agreement has been signed with the firm in this regard”.
In response to a question, sources said that out of 33 already installed CCTVs only 12 are functional at present. Of these 33 CCTVs, 14 each have been installed at Bhawan of Shri Mata Vaishnodevi and holy town of Katra and remaining five at Adhkuwari. While all the CCTVs at Adhkuwari are functional, all the surveillance cameras at Bhawan and seven in Katra are non-operational, which has been viewed very seriously by the Governor N N Vohra, who recently told SP Reasi in explicit terms to fast track the process of making operational all the non-functional CCTVs.
About the reason behind majority of the existing surveillance cameras remaining non-functional, sources said, “these cameras were rendered non-functional mainly by monkeys. However, these cameras could not be repaired as the company which was supposed to carry out annual maintenance back-tracked from its commitment at the later stage”.
About the time-frame within which the existing cameras will be made functional, sources said, “the company has clearly been told that after installation of new CCTVs it will have to repair the old ones within a fixed time-frame”.
It is pertinent to mention here that CCTVs are very helpful in the effective surveillance and are widely used by the Jammu and Kashmir Police for maintaining hawk’s eye on the sensitive areas that too without much deployment of police personnel. All the CCTVs already installed and being installed in Reasi district will be integrated with each other and the pictures to be generated by these cameras will be assessed in a common control room.
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