CCTVs to be placed in poll booths in ‘sensitive’ areas

For the first time in the city, voters will be under the watchful eye of closed circuit cameras (CCTV), but only in booths in areas that come under the ‘sensitive’ category or in areas prone to violence. Sujit Mahamulkar reports.

For the first time in the city, voters will be under the watchful eye of closed circuit cameras (CCTV), but only in booths in areas that come under the ‘sensitive’ category or in areas prone to violence.

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“We have provided a list of around 2,000 booths to the police and they will assess the sensitivity of each. Depending on how they are catergorised, we will install CCTVs at booths in sensitive areas,” said Aseem Gupta, additional municipal commissioner.

In June 2011, the civic body had used CCTV surveillance during the by-poll for ward number 181 in Mahim. “Around 50 CCTV cameras were installed to keep an eye on suspicious voters and to avoid any untoward incident,” said a civic official.

“The police will categorise booths under normal sensitive, very sensitive and extremely sensitive. There are around 900 booths which will be categorised after a thorough study of the area and the candidates in the fray,” said an official.

On Friday, civic chief Subodh Kumar with other senior civic officials met police commissioner Arup Patnaik and other senior police officers at the civic headquarters.

Various issues were discussed at the meeting, including security arrangements for the civic polls.