Maharashtra govt to improve prison security, will spend ₹1.2 crore to install CCTVs

All central prisons except the one in Amravati have CCTV control rooms

To strengthen safety measures for inmates and police personnel, the state government recently decided to release Rs1.20 crore to modernise prisons by installing and upgrading CCTV cameras and  control rooms.

Hindustan Times

Besides one open colony and 172 sub-jails, there are 53 prisons in the state, including nine central ones. All central prisons except the one in Amravati have CCTV control rooms. The state will spend Rs68 lakh to develop a control room in Amravati. The rest of the budget will be used to upgrade control rooms of other central prisons in Yerwada, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Thane etc and install CCTV cameras.

Another control room will come up at the prisons headquarters in Pune.

Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail already has a CCTV control room. In addition, officials will upgrade and install CCTV camera in other prisons to keep a watch on around 31,000 inmates in the state.

A prison department official said most of the central jails were spread over a vast area and it was not possible to physically monitor every corner. CCTV camera will help us man the area 24x7, said the official.

BK Upadhyay, additional director general (prisons), said part of the budget would be used to put up new CCTV control rooms, while the rest was to strengthen the existing network. Since 2012, CCTV cameras have been extensively used inside various prisons to prevent illegal activities, such as rackets and smuggling of phones. In the Manjula Shetye murder case, CCTV footage was used as evidence.

The CCTV project was expedited after an alleged Indian Mujahideen (IM) operative, Qateel Siddiqui, was allegedly killed by two local goons inside Yerwada jail on June 8, 2012.