Mangaluru: Have you ever wondered how many police cameras have recorded your movements, violation of traffic laws on any of your given trip to local grocery store, day out or journey around your home, office within Mangaluru? Here’s how many police CCTV cameras are there in Mangaluru.

With the implementation of new amended Motor Vehicle Act with reviewed fines for traffic violations, Police CCTV cameras have been playing more vital role to help the traffic police department to identify the violators of traffic laws and send the fine challan straight to their homes.

Not only this, the CCTV cameras in the city have also been helping the police department in cracking sensational murder cases like Shrimati Shetty murder case.

According to the City’s Assistant Commissioner of Police Traffic Sub-division, Manjunath Shetty, there are currently 93 CCTV cameras that have their surveillance on the city’s roads 24x7. Initially, in the first phase only 18 cameras were installed in the city. But the Police’s surveillance received a major boost when in 2017 additional 75 cameras were installed at various places and junctions in the city. The data of these cameras are stored for a certain period of time.

Additionally, the Police also access the CCTV cameras of private entities when and where required. This happens mostly during investigation of crimes and not for traffic violations, Shetty told Vartha Bharati.

Adding that there are no automatic capturing CCTV cameras in the city, Shetty said that the cameras are monitored manually 24x7 at control room.

“There are cops monitoring the footage 24x7 and they capture violations of traffic rules all the time. We used to report more than 100 violation cases everyday through cameras. Now with new rules and fines it has come down a bit and on average we report about 50-60 cases daily. That’s a significant decrease in numbers” Shetty told.

“There is a greater need of creating awareness among the youngsters. They should follow traffic laws for their own safety but instead today, youngsters follow these laws only when they see a traffic cop, a patrolling vehicle or at places where they know there are cameras.”

“They are following the rules and laws for the fear of being fined heavy fines under new laws. The purpose is being served but there is no morality in that. We will be happy when people will follow rules for their and other’s safety” Shetty added.

Shetty also informed that the department’s surveillance of the city will get another major boost soon as 60 more CCTV cameras will be installed at various places in the city under Smart City project. These cameras are expected to start working by the end of 2020.

So next time when you go out in the city on your vehicle without helmet or seatbelt, beware as these CCTV cameras are watching you. You might just get a fine challan delivered to your home before you can head out the next time.

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Chamarajnagar: In an untoward incident reported from Indiganatta village under the Mahadeshwara Hills Gram Panchayat administration limits in Hanur taluk, government officials were injured as they attempted at pacifying a group of angry voters who had declared they were boycotting the polls on Friday.

Tahsildar Guruprasad and Taluk Panchayat Chief Officer Umesh and a police inspector were reportedly injured in the clash. In addition, the protesters are learned to have destroyed the polling booth, including the electronic voting machine (EVM), set up in the village. One of the voters who visited the booth was reportedly injured in the head in the incident.

Angry over the non-availability of infrastructure in their village, the voters in Indiganatta declared that they would not exercise their right to franchise on Friday. Guruprasad, Umesh and the police officer, who were informed of the boycott, visited Indiganatta to appease the voters and get them to cast vote. The group of voters, however, directed their anger at the officers, resulting in the trio being injured.

The protesters in Indiganatta were not only adamant about their boycott, but also infuriated by the sight of other voters in the village cast ballot at the polling booth. In anger, they initially had an argument with the voters but later forced their way into the booth and reportedly destroyed the EVM there.
Polling is currently reported to have been stalled in Indiganatta due to the violent incident.