Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal’s routine meeting to review law and order on Thursday irked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who accused Mr. Baijal of being a “dictator”.
The law and order review meetings chaired by Mr. Baijal happen every fortnight normally.
On Thursday, in a tweet by Mr. Baijal and then later in a Raj Niwas statement, the agenda of the meeting was described as review of the current status of CCTV cameras.
CCTV cameras
“Chaired law & order meeting on current status of CCTV cameras in Delhi, including their O&M [operation and maintenance] issues. Directed to have an inter-agency group to formulate a SOP [standard operating procedure] to have uniformity in installation & address issues of privacy, security, feed-sharing, integration & optimum utilisation. (sic),” the Lieutenant-Governor said in a tweet.
Replying to Mr. Baijal’s tweet, Mr. Sisodia said: “LG sir, pl don’t be a dictator. This is attempt to run parallel govt in Delhi. Its illegal. U don’t hv power to call meeting on issues under elected govt’s domain. Under Constitution! u can ONLY express difference of opinion on decision of elected govt. Pl respect the Const. [sic].”
The Chief Minister also commented on the issue, saying in response to Mr. Sisodia’s tweet: “LG shud respect and follow the constitution [sic]”.
Though law and order is a subject that is under the L-G and not the elected government, a source in the Aam Aadmi Party government said Mr. Baijal was trying to interfere in the ongoing project to install CCTV cameras across the city, something which the elected government was carrying out.
In the statement, Raj Niwas said that the meeting, which was attended by Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash and Delhi Police Commission Amulya Patnaik among other officials, was called to review the “operational and functional aspects of CCTVs in Delhi, their utilisation/maintenance/feedback, progress in installation and future plans”.
Police presentation
The police made a presentation about their CCTV network, which includes 4,067 cameras at 87 locations in Delhi. The statement added that the proposal for additional 1,380 cameras was “under active consideration” of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
“It was also discussed that the main purpose of CCTVs is crime prevention and safety. If CCTV cameras are installed by different agencies without coordination with police in a haphazard manner, the whole purpose of installation of CCTVs would be defeated,” Raj Niwas said.
While the Raj Niwas statement did not elaborate on the “different agencies”, the Delhi government’s Public Works Department is currently in the process of installing 1.40 lakh CCTV cameras in markets, colonies and other areas, apart from main roads.
The locations for these cameras would be identified with the help of the local residents and stakeholders.
In what could be seen as a reference to the PWD’s project, the Raj Niwas said, “A standard protocol for sharing of video feed with the police has to be evolved...It has to be ensured that there is no overlapping of cameras at the same location so that scarce government resources are not wasted.”
Inter-agency group
With that in mind, the L-G ordered the formation of an inter-agency group to form an SOP for the installation of the cameras “as well as issues of privacy, security, feed-sharing, integration and optimum utilisation”.
