Lashing out at the state government, the Bombay High Court said has anyone bothered to read the Supreme Court order? The state government will have to follow the order of the Supreme Court.
The High Court held that the entire purpose of the Supreme Court order was to ensure transparency and therefore, mere paper compliance would not suffice. The High Court told the Maharashtra government that you need to constitute a committee to look into it. Otherwise no one will care about this order.
On this, Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, on behalf of the state government, told the court that the work of installing CCTV cameras in police stations and repairing defective cameras is being done by two contractors. The court asked why the tender for installation of CCTVs in police stations was given to only two contractors.
Responding to which, Advocate General Kumbhakoni told the bench that in November 2020, an agreement was reached with the two contractors to install CCTVs within a period of 22 weeks and thereafter maintain them for five years.
Advocate General Kumbhakoni said that the wiring work has been completed in all the police stations. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and non-availability of some hardware parts, further work could not be carried out due to which payment to both the contractors was stopped. After this, the old payment was made till January 2022 when the work started again.
On this, the court said that steps are being taken only after the order is passed. Nothing has been done before this. During this, the High Court also said that as per the order of the Supreme Court, CCTV cameras have to be installed at all entry and exit points, inside lock-ups, in the chamber of inspectors, sub-inspectors and other necessary places. To which Kubhkoni said that it is probably being followed.
According to the government’s affidavit submitted in the court on Monday, there are 1,089 police stations in the state. So far 6,092 CCTVs have been installed in 547 police stations. Of these, 5,639 cameras are working, while the rest are not working. In this, the government has said that the contractors have been asked to fix all defective CCTVs within 15 days.
The Bombay High Court has given March 2 for the next hearing in the matter. Along with this, the government has been asked to submit the documents related to the tender and the documents related to the work experience of both the contractors.