CHENNAI: It was a warm Friday afternoon, a day before Pongal festival, and commuters were waiting at Nungambakkam railway station for the local EMU. Minutes before a train was to enter the station, a young man, in his mid-twenties, dropped a small packet on the platform and casually walked off, as if he was strolling in a park. A ticket inspector nearby wasn’t bothered, nor were others. The packet lay on the ground for about twenty minutes unattended, before it disappeared.
Who was that young man? What did he drop off? Who picked it up? Could it have possibly been a contraband or any other dangerous item? Perhaps, the above questions could have been better answered if only there was a CCTV camera, capturing every single detail. But, unfortunately, not a single camera could be found at the station, where just six months back, an IT employee was murdered while waiting on the same platform.
The absence of security cameras is more galling as work on installing them was supposed to have been completed by December last. Now, there is a fresh deadline.
In the aftermath of that horrific murder, railway officials decided to enhance surveillance at stations. Chennai division has 165 railway stations with more than 50 on the suburban network, where close monitoring is much needed. It was announced that Video Surveillance System (VSS) was sanctioned for 136 stations in Southern Railway Zone, which includes 82 stations in Chennai division. The money for the project was to come from Nirbhaya Fund, for which the central government had allocated `500 crore. With each station scheduled to get at least 8 cameras, the deadline was set for December 2016. However, work has not even started at the identified stations, causing a ‘blind eye’ situation.
Stating that there has been a policy change leading to the delay, Chief Security Commissioner cum Inspector General, Southern Railway, S C Parhi, said zonal railways were earlier entrusted with the work. “But upon a review, the railway board has handed over the project to RailTel. It will be done on a pan-India basis to ensure uniformity,” he said. Parhi added that a fresh deadline has been set for the work, to be carried out in phases by June 2017 and December 2017.
“We have written to the railway board pressing for work to be taken up in Southern Railway on priority,” he said. Presently, only seven stations in Chennai division, including Chennai Central and Egmore, have CCTV cameras as they are covered under the Integrated Security System (ISS), a comprehensive surveillance mechanism.