We always hear about tall claims of beefing up security. From top to bottom in the security hierarchy, this claim has become the refrain. Yet we have security lapses and then the authorities try to find rationale for something untoward that happens so often and so suddenly. The Union Home Ministry occasionally says that it has alerted the state governments to take more precautionary measures to contain terrorism. Is just conveying warning enough? Something more needs to be done to convince the public that security is a priority concern of the Government. The bomb blasts in Hyderabad have shown that the enemies of peace are not really dormant. They are underground but not dysfunctional. As underground activists they are more dangerous.
Reports in the media say that the Close Circuit Television cameras installed in the two capital cities of the State are mostly dysfunctional. Reports say that 38 out of 43 CCTV cameras installed in Jammu city and 27 out of 33 installed at Katra are dysfunctional. All the 25 CCTVs on Katra to holy shrine are dysfunctional. This is very disappointing situation. Jammu is not only the winter capital of the State it is also the economic hub of the entire State. It is a city where people of all the regions and sub-regions meet for business, tourism, pilgrimage, and other activities. In winter hundreds of thousands of people come to the city from higher reaches of the State and from Kashmir and Ladakh as well. The number of pilgrims visiting the holy shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi has crossed one crore. One can imagine that with this enormous influx of humanity, providing security become the top priority with the Government.
CCTVs cameras have been considered one of the important means of obtaining footage of people’s movement in congested as well as vulnerable areas. There is no alternative to it. The Government took the question of installing hundreds of CCTV cameras at a number of vulnerable places in the city. Funds were provided for it and the spots where these had to be installed were indentified. The police and security staff worked together to provide this safety measure. With all these preparations and after spending so much of money, if the CCTVs are dysfunctional this makes a waste of the big effort. The police authorities have conceded that most of these are not working properly and that the contractor has been approached to repair them. There is lack of coordination among the authorities concerned with maintaining security of the State. Actually there should be hour to hour monitoring of these photo machines. It is not that they be allowed to become malfunctioning pieces of show and then call in a technician who would look into its repair and in this process so many days and weeks would pass by. This shows that there is not full appreciation of the need for round the clock vigilance on the part of security authorities.
There is another aspect to the matter. One should not rule out the possibility of subversion by anti-national elements or even the terrorists who have a widespread network and their underground cells work in clandestine manner. The security authorities are well aware of this possibility. Therefore keeping these machines functional round the clock becomes more necessary.
The huge rush of people at Mata Vaishno Devi has increased business activities manifold. Shopkeepers and vendors of goods come from far and near to sell their merchandise and earn a living. One cannot be sure about the antecedents of all this huge humanity. God forbid, even a single bomb blast could cause enormous loss of life because people are thickly concentrated at various places related to the shrine. We also learn that in the city of Srinagar except at Jehangir Chowk and the Civil Secretariat, all CCTVs in the city and at crucial points are not functioning and nobody cares to repair them. This indicates how callous security authorities are about the safety of ordinary people.
We are aware that police and security staff are doing their job with dedication. They have also made big sacrifices in maintaining law and order in the State. They are performing their duty with full consciousness. That much is appreciable. But even small slackness here and there can become the cause for a big event and damage. The authorities need to keep all instruments of security perfect and fully functional and give no chance to the miscreants to endanger our life and disrupt peace.
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