CHENNAI: Residents of Bharathi Road in Perambur urged the local authorities to replace the CCTV cameras that have been in dilapidated condition for some time now.
Despite lodging several petitions and escalating the matter to the higher authorities of the department concerned nothing has been done to address the issue to date, rued the residents.
“The CCTV cameras installed under the third Eye Project launched in 2017 by the former Police Commissioner of Greater Chennai AK Vishwanathan have been in a dilapidated condition over the last several years. The officer had also sanctioned Rs 1 crore to restore the damaged cameras. However, there have been no steps taken for the same,” said C Raghukumar, a civic activist in Perambur.
“We are concerned as to why successive governments and even bureaucrats or officials for that matter abandon any good work done by their predecessors in the public interest,” he added.
Locals have subsequently filed reminders through social media and have been waiting for the officials to take corrective action endlessly.
Almost all the CCTV cameras in the area are in the same state and there hasn’t been any swift action taken by the authorities. The issue is completely negligent.
“We urge the officials concerned to audit the condition of the cameras installed across the city and do the needful to either replace them with the Smart Surveillance WiFi Camera pillars or restore the existing ones immediately under the Nirbhaya Scheme by coordinating with the Greater Chennai Corporation,” said another resident.
When contacted a senior Greater Chennai Corporation official ensured that immediate steps would be taken after an inspection was carried out.