E-Paper
Ahead of local body polls, U.P. govt installs 5,000 CCTVs in 16 cities
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, while campaigning for municipal elections, had vowed to make cities safer. He had repeatedly claimed that criminals are feeling the heat under his government.
LUCKNOW In a bid to check crimes and better surveillance, a total of 5,000 CCTVs have been installed in 16 cities of Uttar Pradesh, according to a press statement issued by the state government. The development comes in the run-up to the local body polls.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, while campaigning for municipal elections, had vowed to make cities safer. He had repeatedly claimed that criminals are feeling the heat under his government. “Our cities are getting smarter and safer. If any anti-social element dares to harass our sisters and daughters at one intersection, he will be caught instantly by the police at the next intersection,” the CM had said in nearly all the ‘Prabbudhjan Sammelan’ events he attended.
According to the communique, the CCTVs have been installed in Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Bareilly, Jhansi, Saharanpur, and Moradabad with Centre’s support. Meanwhile, the CCTVs in Ayodhya, Mathura-Vrindavan, Firozabad, Meerut, Shahjahanpur, Gorakhpur, and Ghaziabad has been installed with state government funds.
These CCTVs are part of the state government’s efforts to create safe and smart cities through the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC), the press release stated. “Cooperation of private companies has also been taken in their installation. Under the Smart City Mission, where the urban development department took over the responsibility of installation, CCTVs have been installed on expressways, by NHAI on toll plazas, by the railways on railway stations and by the metro administration at metro stations. All these have been linked to the ICCC,” it added.
Camera installation in institutional finance, such as banks or ATMs, has been done through private companies. “The housing department has become the nodal agency for tax and registration of shops and markets and for apartments and houses. Monitoring is being done by the ICCC... Every intersection as well as major roads, expressways, railways, and metro stations are now covered by cameras, recording all the activities taking place there,” according to the government statement.
