It was launched amid fanfare and was revived with a lot of hope. But the e-beat system, which brought more accountability to police personnel on patrol, has not functioned for the past five years due to a dispute over the maintenance contract, revealed the audit report by Comptroller and Auditor General that was tabled in the Tamil Nadu Assembly during the just-concluded session. Under this system, 260 e-beat machines were kept at road junctions in residential areas where the personnel on night patrol could swipe their cards, which contain the name, number, place and time of swiping.