Madhya Pradesh Assembly. File photo
Highlights
It will be mandatory to install CCTV cameras at public places. Its recording will also have to be kept safe for two months. The shop owners will have to bear the expenses on this.
Vaibhav Sridhar, Naiduniya Bhopal. It will be mandatory to install CCTV cameras for surveillance at public places in Madhya Pradesh. Its recording will have to be kept safe for two months and it will have to be made available whenever the police needs it for investigation. A draft of the Public Security Act has been prepared for this.
It could not be presented in the monsoon session of the assembly due to the session ending before the scheduled time period. Now the Home Department has prepared to implement it through an ordinance and has sent the draft to the Law Department for refinement. In the state, operators of colleges, schools, malls, restaurants, hospitals and other places where more than a hundred people gather will have to install CCTV cameras.
The operators will also have to bear the expenses incurred on this. Actually, this system was required because whenever the police needed the recording during investigation, it was revealed that there were no CCTV cameras or the recording was not kept safe. In the proposed Public Security Act, a provision is being made that it will be mandatory for the operators to keep the recording of CCTV cameras safe for two months.
Preparations going on for four years
Preparations for making a public security law in the state have been going on since 2020, i.e. four years. The Home Department had started this exercise on the instructions of the then Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. The then Additional Chief Secretary Home Dr. Rajesh Rajoura had prepared a draft by studying the law related to installing CCTV cameras in Telangana and keeping its data safe. After being refined by the Law Department, it will be sent through the Cabinet for the approval of Governor Mangubhai Patel.