NEW DELHI: Delhi lives under a high alert. Sirens, checkpoints, frisking — the drill is familiar. But when it comes to eyes on the street, the blind spots are far too many.
Despite repeated terror strikes and clear directions from the top, most government buildings in Delhi remain poorly watched. Of the Central and state government offices surveyed, just over a fifth have CCTV cameras with a decent monitoring range. The rest? Blind spots.
The lapse is glaring because the instruction wasn’t informal. At the DGsP/IGsP Conference 2024, authorities were told to ensure all government offices install a network of CCTV cameras with exterior coverage of at least 500 metres. Months later, compliance is thin.
Documents accessed by the newspaper show that by early September, around 1,649 government offices and buildings had been surveyed. “Out of which, 344 offices have exterior coverage of CCTV of 500 meters from their office/buildings under different projects, either by Delhi Police or civic agencies or by the government department/offices at their own level,” the document said. Estate officers have since been advised to install CCTV cameras with a minimum recording backup of 30 days.
Ironically, the technology is already in place—just not everywhere it needs to be. Investigating officers routinely extract footage and analyse it using video management systems, video and audio analytics, face recognition software, and ANPR cameras that read vehicle number plates. When cameras exist, they work.
The Red Fort blast this year is a stark reminder of what surveillance can—and cannot—do. The prime accused, Dr Uman Nabi, was tracked across the city through CCTV footage before the attack.