Odisha BJP Alleges Corruption In Govt Procurement Of CCTV Cameras For Police Stations

Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged large scale corruption in purchase of CCTV cameras by the state government through Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC).

Speaking to media persons, here, on Sunday, state spokesman of the party Thakur Ranjit Das said the government had placed orders through OCAC for purchase of CCTV systems from Mumbai-based Crystal Integrated Services Pvt Ltd at a cost of Rs 104.96 crore. The government planned to instal the CCTVs at 593 police stations.

As per the government’s plan, each police station would have 8 bullet cameras and 12 dome cameras at a cost of Rs 15.57 lakh. Das said the purchase order mentions Rs 94.41 crore towards CCTV cameras and Rs 10.21 crore for installing central monitoring system.

He pointed out that the CCTV cameras as per specification is available in the open market at a cost of Rs 6 lakh each. As per the requirement, the total cost of the equipment would be not more than Rs 40 crore.

The BJP leader further said besides the unusually high costs, the maintenance of the CCTVS is  a matter of concern as in case of damage those would have to be sent to the authorised workshop of the company in Uttar Pradesh.

Stating that the purchase of CCTVs at 250% more than the market cost involved corruption at high level, Das demanded the government to withdraw the procurement order from the Mumbai company.