At a time when total surveillance of public transport systems in the city is being debated, in the aftermath of a young woman’s murder in Nungambakkam railway station last month, the television screens monitoring the closed circuit television systems at Chennai Central went blank on Monday morning.
A 42-year-old businessman was shocked by the bitter truth when he arrived at Chennai Central Railway Station after a brief holiday. He had stopped by at the food court for a cup of tea and left the station through the southern exit. Only while hiring a taxi, he realised that his wallet was missing.
“I went back to the food court but the wallet was not there. I took help from the Railway Protection Force policemen near the baggage scanner and they directed me to the police station (Government Railway Police) on the first floor,” said the passenger who preferred not to be named.
No visuals
“I requested for a playback of the recording, but the screen went blank. They selected the option of splitting the screen and played footage from multiple cameras and once again, there were no visuals from a few cameras. Policemen told me that some of the cameras were not working,” said the businessman, who lost cash and some important documents in original.