Group items tagged

MUMBAI: A local metropolitan magistrate's court on Tuesday restrained the media from either publishing or telecasting images related to the CCTV footage of the July 13 triple blasts. Magistrate N J Shende in his order observed, "If identity of the witnesses is disclosed to the public at large, it may hamper the smooth investigation of the case and may cause threat to such persons." "I am of the opinion, in view of the provisions enumerated under Section 44 (of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act), in order to safeguard the life of the people and witnesses, the application is allowed," said Shende.

JALANDHAR: The students of Lovely Professional University, Punjab's first private university, will remain under the watchful eyes of their parents, even when they are studying in their classrooms or working in the laboratories. The university has installed 2,400 CCTV cameras in the classrooms and at other places on the campus. They university authorities are working to provide access to live footage of the CCTVs to the parents. Over 25,000 students, including 600 from foreign countries, are studying in the university.

"But an interaction on Friday between the city's top cops and citizens of Jayanagar, JP Nagar, Basavanagudi, Subramanyapura, Chamarajpet, Banashankari, Girinagar, KS Layout and adjoining areas in South Division police jurisdiction saw police commissioner, BG Jyothi Prakash Mirji, appealing to the residents to appoint watchmen and set up CCTVs to increase vigil on the streets - which is otherwise a policeman's role. And all this, through expenses borne by the residents who anyway pay taxes expecting those very policing services for their protection in return. "If people do this, and join hands with the police to decrease crime, then we can achieve it," Mirji said."

The RFP will be floated on the basis of the recommendations of an expert panel on specifications for cameras and connectivity. The panel includes IIT professors and senior state officials (who are former IITians). The state plans to install 5,000 CCTV cameras at sensitive locations in the city as part of the surveillance network. The project is estimated to cost Rs 600 crore.- Sandeep Ashar

With India planning a huge database of 1.5 crore criminals for matching with the hand or face sample of an accused, the criminals or terror mongers will find it much tougher to hide. A fingerprint or a face in a CCTV shot captured from a crime or terror scene anywhere in India would lead the law-enforcing authorities straight to the culprit at the click of a button. The home ministry is working on an ambitious project to collect the fingerprints, palm prints, faces and iris samples of all the arrested and convicted persons in the country and store these in a central database. This biometric data will be accessible to all the police units across the country for getting real-time results on the identity of a suspect. Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/home-ministry-plans-national-database-on-criminals/1/157679.html