Defunct CCTV cameras at Haridwar railway station pose security threat

Haridwar (Uttarakhand), [India], November 6 : Haridwar railway station seems to have become an easy target for anti-social elements as around a dozen closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras installed in and around the station premises have been found defunct.
Haridwar station, which comes under the Moradabad railway division, sees lakhs of people coming from all over the world, and the station has around 90 cameras installed at different locations for surveillance.
"Of the 90 CCTV cameras, around a dozen are defunct. The cameras have been defunct for a long time, and there was nothing done by the railway authorities to repair them," claimed sources.
This is not the first time when CCTV cameras are found defunct, and there were many such instances in the past too, they added.
On October 10, 2022, a letter sent by ordinary post to the Haridwar railway station superintendent, had claimed that an attack would be carried out on October 25 and 27.
Similarly, in May this year, Roorkee Railway Police received a letter with threats of blowing up six railway stations including that of Haridwar city, they pointed out.
Officials of the Government railway police (GRP) Haridwar admitted the security lapse and said that it was a matter of concern and lack of security arrangements.
They claimed that the matter was brought to the notice of station officials in the past, but nothing has been done so far to make the cameras functional again.
"Some of the CCTV cameras installed at Haridwar station are defunct. We have written to the station officials to check the faulty cameras, and they will be made functional very soon," GRP SP Aruna Bharti said.
She added that the station sees a heavy footfall of people from all over the world and it is the railways' responsibility to ensure the safety of the visitors to the station.