SC directives issued in 2020 all set to be implemented
TAC asked to make recommendations within 7 days
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 8: Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has set into motion an exercise for installation of CCTC cameras in all the Police Stations and Police Posts as per the directions issued by the Supreme Court in the month of December 2020 with the instructions to the Technical Appraisal Committee (TAC) to make recommendations within a period of seven days positively.
In Special Leave Petition (Criminal) No.3543, the Supreme Court, while dealing with the issue of photography and videography of the crime scenes, issued order dated December 2, 2020 asking all the States and Union Territories to ensure that CCTV cameras are installed in each and every Police Station.
Acting on the directions of the Apex Court, the then Government constituted Union Territory and District Level Committees and even defined their Terms of References. Though the Committees made certain recommendations yet the exercise could not be taken forward because of certain reasons.
Now, General Administration Department has constituted Technical Appraisal Committee for the project “Installation of CCTV surveillance in Police Stations/Police Posts across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir”.
The committee comprising of Mohd Saleem Khan, State Informatics Officer, NIC J&K, Anil Gupta, Director, Centre of IT Enable Services and Management, University of Jammu, representative of National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT) to be nominated by Director Incharge and Rajeev Gupta, Technical Officer, Information Technology Department has been assigned the task of examining and getting the document technically vetted and making necessary recommendations to the indenting department.
Further, the committee will also give its recommendations/ suggestions on the viability of the proposed solutions in the document, if any, along with estimated cost and ensure strict compliance to all rules, procedures and guidelines issued by the Government from time to time while vetting the document.
The committee has been clearly told to submit its report within seven days to the indenting department under intimation to the General Administration Department and Information Technology Department.
The Technical Appraisal Committee has been constituted in terms of Statutory Order (SO).227 dated July 9, 2021, which read: “Power to accord technical sanction in case of IT related projects has been delegated to the Technical Appraisal Committee to be constituted by the General Administration Department on the recommendations of the IT Department involving financial implication of above Rs 2 crore”.
Vide this Statutory Order, which was issued by the order of the Lieutenant Governor, amendment was made to the Delegation of Financial Powers to accord Administrative Approval, Technical Sanction and Award of Contracts to the Administrative Departments issued vide Notification No. S.0-15 dated 09.01.2020.
The Apex Court in its order dated December 2, 2020 had mentioned: “In order to ensure that no part of a Police Station is left uncovered, it is imperative to ensure that CCTV cameras are installed at all entry and exit points, main gate of the Police Station, all lock-ups, all corridors, lobby/reception area, all out-houses, Inspector’s Room, Sub-Inspector’s Room, areas outside the lock-up room, station hall and outside washrooms and toilets”.
The order further read: “The CCTV systems that have to be installed must be equipped with night vision and must necessarily consist of audio as well as video footage. The internet systems must also provide clear image resolutions and audio. Most important of all is the storage of CCTV camera footage which can be done in digital video recorders and or network video recorders. The Station House Officer shall be made responsible for CCTV data maintenance, backup of data and fault rectification etc”.
The objective behind these directions of the Apex Court was to keep watch on the functioning of the police personnel at Police Station level.
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