NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has stated in the Lok Sabha that out of 17,535 police stations in 28 states and 8 Union Territories (UTs), a staggering 628 do not have even a telephone connection; 63 police stations are without a vehicle; 285 do not even have basic necessities like a wireless set or mobile phone, and there is no CCTV camera in as many as 2,701.
“Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) has been deployed in 16,592 police stations across the country as on March 1 this year,” said Nityanand Rai, Minister of State for Home. The states and UTs have been advised to take appropriate steps for infrastructure upgrade.
Sharing details of police stations without CCTV cameras, Rai said of the 17,535 police stations, only 14,834 have CCTV cameras. “In Tamil Nadu, there are 2,292 police stations and 714 don’t not have CCTV cameras; while 505 of 1,168 police stations in Maharashtra don’t have CCTV cameras. In Jharkhand, the number of police stations without CCTV cameras is 438 (out of 564), while 428 of 1,027 stations in Andhra Pradesh lacked CCTV cameras,” Rai said.
The number of computers in police stations across states is 1,72,168, he added. Sharing details of the funds allocated and released by the Central government under the ‘assistance to states and UTs for modernisation of police’ scheme in the last three years, Rai said better performance incentive that was being given till 2019-20 was discontinued in view of the new guidelines which allow release of the 25 per cent instalment amount if the unspent balance of a state or UT is below 25 per cent of the allocation.
