Basavanagudi constituency in Bengaluru has reportedly become India’s first assembly constituency to get round-the-clock CCTV surveillance.

400 CCTV cameras have been installed along major roads and junctions in the constituency on pilot basis. This came after the constituency’s MLA Ravi Subramanya suggested that the police install cameras following the rising incidents of crime including chain snatching and theft, reported BangaloreMirror.

According to the BM report, it wasn’t a cakewalk for the BJP MLA to get this project started. Subramanya had to fight the state legislature which refused to give Rs 70 lakh for the project under MLA LAD schemes.

He reportedly fought for the project at the government level and got the project started with Rs 30 lakh funding.  Union minister for Fertilisers and Chemicals Ananth Kumar and Union minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary affairs Venkaiah Naidu contributed Rs 30 lakh and Rs 10 lakh respectively.

Subramanya said “Currently, more than 200 cameras have been commissioned and by the end of May, more than 400 will be operational. The uniqueness of the project is the real-time streaming of footage from the spot. All of them are linked through antennas connected to a control room through the intra-net and optical fibres.“ Control rooms have been set up at all jurisdictional police stations. A separate master control room has also been set up near the Shankar Nag circle. The entire project has been implemented with direct participation of companies that manufacture cameras. In fact, we have even installed vehicle number-reading cameras at important junctions.”

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