The closed circuit cameras installed in the district headquarters town in 2012 have remained non-functional even after three years of installation following indifferent attitude of higher authorities and other factors such as cable war between different MSOs and so on.
The decision to introduce the system was taken after thorough discussion in the Police Department and also between the police and revenue and municipal administration. It became a role model as the improvised system, even superior to the one which is in vogue in the State capital, which was developed by the Hyderabad-based software company, Stan Power. The company installed 22 CC cameras at 11 important junctions without taking a single penny from the government.
Inspired by this, police machineries in Nellore, Warangal, East Godavari and Vishakhapatnam evinced keen interest in introducing the same system in their respective cities.
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The Stan Power, which offered free service in the installation and also maintenance, spent an amount of Rs. 1.50 crore towards the project.
The State-level officers appreciated the efforts of the district police and felt that the system would help police bring the city under the radar and catch offenders with much ease. A control room with specialised software was set up on the traffic police station building and separate staff, drawn from both the Police Department and Stan Power, were also deployed for the execution. Stan Power entered into an agreement with the police and the district administration to carry out the project without charging any amount, but wanted to utilise as many as 20 centres in the town to put advertisement hoardings. The agreement was signed in the presence of the then Superintendent of Police K. Venkateswar Rao.
However, the project did not take off as the cable laid by the Stan Power was cut off mistakenly by MSOs in their cable war. Undaunted by the act, the Stan Power was willing to reinstall the cable provided some compensation was given by the government. As the successive district police heads did not show interest, the CC cameras have remained unused for three years now.
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Rural CI G. Venkateswar Rao, who is acting as the In-charge CI of traffic police, says that the system will come into effect soon as cable connection is being restored again.