The Madras High Court on Wednesday closed a suo motu public interest litigation petition taken up by it pursuant to the daylight murder of techie S. Swathi at Nungambakkam railway station in Chennai in 2016 after recording the submission of Southern Railway that CCTV surveillance would be provided in all 442 stations in Tamil Nadu by July 2024.
Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy recorded the submission of P.T. Ramkumar, standing counsel for Southern Railway, that a clear cut timeline had been drawn for the provision of video surveillance system in a phased manner in all railway stations and that the entire work would be completed within a year.
The judges also recorded the submission of State Government Pleader P. Muthukumar that the police department had installed CCTV cameras in important traffic junctions and other strategic locations to prevent crimes and that the government had also put in place various other measures to ensure the safety of women.
The first Division Bench closed the PIL petition with an observation that the authorities concerned must not stop with installation of CCTV cameras. The officials in the railways and the police department must also ensure the equipment remain operational through periodic monitoring, they said.
In a status report filed before the Bench, Santosh N. Chandran, Deputy Inspector General-cum-Chief Security Commissioner, Railway Protection Force, said, the work of installation of CCTV cameras in the railway stations was being carried out by Signal and Telecommunication department and Railtel Corporation of India Limited.
The DIG further stated the Railway Board had sanctioned ₹75 crore for the project and sincere steps were being taken to complete the project as expeditiously as possible considering the safety of travelling public. He also attributed the delay caused to the process of obtaining security verification certification for the cameras and the software from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
