CCTV cameras increased in UP jails: Activity of notorious criminals, mafia to be closely monitored

New Delhi: The installation of CCTV cameras and upgrading them in 30 jails of Uttar Pradesh, being carried out under the instruction of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to monitor activities of notorious criminals and mafia in jails, is in the final stages now. DG (Jail) Anand Kumar predicts that the exercise would be completed by February. It is noteworthy that the Jail department had sent a proposal to the government last year to release a budget of Rs 976 lakh for the same.

The DG (Jail) informed that 933 CCTVs are being installed in 30 jails, out of which 670 new CCTVs have been installed while the rest of the defective cameras are being replaced. The number of CCTV cameras in these jails has increased from 50 to 60 with the installation of 34 CCTV cameras. The highest number of 46 cameras have been installed in Agra District Jail. All these cameras are directly connected to the prison headquarters so that the prisons can be monitored 24 hours a day through a video wall in the command center operating in the prison headquarters.

Among the jails in the state where cameras are being replaced is the sensitive Banda Jail, where mafia don Mukhtar Ansari is imprisoned.

CCTV cameras have been installed in central prisons in Agra, Bareilly, Fatehgarh, Naini, and Varanasi. There are also district prisons in Agra, Firozabad, Aligarh, Sultanpur, Kanpur, Kanpur Dehat, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Varanasi, Etawah, Ghazipur, Mirzapur, Faizabad, Barabanki, Kannauj, Azamgarh, Sitapur, Chitrakoot, Gorakhpur, and Moradabad. New CCTVs have been installed in Unnao, Banda, and Pratapgarh while defective CCTVs are being replaced.

Yogi had recently sanctioned Rs 6 lakh for replacing defective CCTV cameras and increasing the number of cameras in 20 more jails in the state. DG Jail said the bidding process for the purchase of these cameras has been launched from the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal which will be completed by April. Thus, the work of rehabilitation and capacity building while installing CCTV in a total of 50 jails in the state will be completed. Proposals have been sent to the government for upgrading and increasing the number of cameras in the remaining jails. Further, according to new sanctions, CCTV cameras will be installed in Rampur, Rae Bareli, Baghpat, Kheeri, Mathura, Deoria, Jhansi, Fatehpur, Pilibhit, Fatehgarh, Bijnor, Mainpuri, Gonda, Bahraich, Etah, and Hardoi.