BENGALURU: As many as 445 CCTVs installed in eight central prisons are now connected to a control room, which will enable monitoring of activities inside the prisons. The control room was inaugurated on Tuesday by Home minister G Parameshwara.
The control room, that has been set up in the office of the Director General of Police (Prisons), will be linked to the CCTV cameras installed in central prisons of Bengaluru (97), Mysuru (52), Belagavi (68), Dharwad (56), Kalaburgi (58), Ballari (38), Vijayapura (48) and Tumakuru (28).
The state government has also sanctioned installation of CCTV systems in 20 district jails in the year 2016-17.
Prison officials said surveillance is being increased in the wake of Supreme Court’s order to put prisons under surveillance of CCTVs to ensure protection of human rights of prisoners. Brawls between prisoners also go unnoticed at times.
According to prison statistics for 2015, released by National Crime Records Bureau recently, 13 complaints were filed with the National Human Rights Commission.
“Cameras are of High Definition and connected via Karnataka State Wide Area Network (KSWAN) at 30 mbps speed, while working 24x7 with dedicated equipment,” said DGP-Prisons H N Sathyanarayana Rao.
Rao added that the prisons department has also proposed construction of a high security prison near Parappana Agrahara central prison to accommodate the increasing number of inmates.
He said, “Earlier, it was planned at Devanahalli, but since there is shortage of water, the site was shifted to Parappana Agrahara where the department has some land. The prison will have high-security systems.”