The police are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the bustling streets of Erumely, a major stopover en route to the Sabarimala temple, remain peaceful during the upcoming annual pilgrim season.
In the run-up to the Mandalam-Makaravilakku season starting next week, the department is introducing a video surveillance network, comprising 36 cameras equipped with face detection software, around the town.
The system, operating round the clock, will be fed photographs of persons booked in connection with the recent protests over the Sabarimala issue.
These cameras, installed in public areas, scan streets and instantly analyse the faces of everyon. Once a face matches this way, the police will be notified immediately.
“People will be kept track of when they enter the Koratty bridge, the first point, till they leave Karikallumuzhi. Once identified, suspects will be picked up in 15 minutes. The whole system will be controlled and monitored from a hi-tech control room operating from the Erumely police station,” said S. Madhusoodanan, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Kanjirappally.
Further, the system will keep an eye on the localities. As per police estimates, over 2.5 crore of the nearly four crore devotees who visited Sabarimala last season had passed through the town.
Many protests
The town, where tens of thousands of pilgrims take a temporary shelter during the season, witnessed a series of protests recently over the entry of women of child-bearing age into Sabarimala.
The police along with the State government and the Travancore Devaswom Board have pooled ₹50 lakh each to establish the system, with technical support from Keltron. State Police Chief Loknath Behera is slated to launch the facility on November 20.
Panchayat initiative
Meanwhile, the Erumely grama panchayat is installing 15 cameras here at a cost of ₹15 lakh. “Work on the project has already begun. On completion, the system will be integrated to the police control room,” said T.S. Krishnakumar, president of the local body.
Besides real-time face recognition, as many as 600 police officers including 120 female policewomen will be pressed into service in three turns during the two-month period. The officers will work on three turns a day, each turn having a minimum of 200 officers. This is in addition to the special forces, to be positioned at strategic locations.
