One of the first women’s safety measures introduced by Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) following the brutal gang rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012 was to install CCTV cameras in 500 buses, two per bus.
While BMTC has been facing a funds crunch to expand the project to the rest of its fleet, commuters complain that even the existing cameras have become ineffective.
While it is not known whether they act as a deterrent to anti-social elements who harass women or commit crimes on buses, its usefulness while probing such instances is severely undermined by red tape, complain commuters and police officers.
Jayshankar, a commuter who lost his wallet on June 9, says, “Retrieving CCTV footage is a Herculean task. I have been running from pillar to post, but in vain.”
But, the police are not convinced about their usefulness. A senior police officer said the footage is of little help as two cameras — one at the driver's seat and the other in the last row of seats — did not capture most of the incidents, especially during peak hour rush. “Even if we get the footage, it helps only when the culprits are known offenders,” an officer said.
The footage is preserved for 15 days after which the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). Also, there is no control room to monitor the footage in real time.
It has been over a year since BMTC sought funds from the Nirbhaya Fund of the Union government to expand the project to more buses in its fleet. But it is yet to receive any.
