The installation and upgradation of CCTV cameras in 30 jails of Uttar Pradesh, being carried out to monitor activities of notorious criminals and mafia in jails, is in the final stages. 

Director-General (Jail) Anand Kumar said the exercise would be completed by February. It is noteworthy that the Jail department had sent a proposal to the government last year to release a budget of Rs 976 lakh for the same.

The DG (Jail) said 933 CCTVs are being installed in 30 jails and 670 of them are new while the rest of the defective cameras are being replaced. 

The number of CCTV cameras in these jails has increased from 50 to 60 with the installation of 34 new ones. The highest number of CCTV cameras (46) have been installed in the Agra District Jail. 

All these cameras are directly connected to the prison headquarters for their 24X7 monitoring through a video wall at the command centre in the prison headquarters. 

Among the jails in the state where cameras are being replaced is the sensitive Banda jail where don Mukhtar Ansari is lodged. 

CCTV cameras have been installed at the central prisons in Agra, Bareilly, Fatehgarh, Naini and Varanasi. There are also district prisons in Agra, Firozabad, Aligarh, Sultanpur, Kanpur, Kanpur Dehat, Bulandshahr, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Muzaffarnagar, Varanasi, Etawah, Ghazipur, Mirzapur, Faizabad, Barabanki, Kannauj, Azamgarh, Sitapur, Chitrakoot, Gorakhpur, and Moradabad. 

New CCTV cameras have been installed in Unnao, Banda and Pratapgarh while defective ones are being replaced.

Yogi had recently sanctioned Rs 6 lakh for replacing defective CCTV cameras and increasing the number of cameras in 20 more jails in the state. 

The DG (Jail) said the bidding process for the purchase of the cameras has been launched from the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal and it will be completed by April. Thus, the work of rehabilitation and capacity building while installing CCTV cameras in a total of 50 jails in the state will be completed. Proposals have been sent to the government to upgrade and increase the number of cameras in the remaining jails. 

According to new sanctions, CCTV cameras will be installed in Rampur, Rae Bareli, Baghpat, Kheri, Mathura, Deoria, Jhansi, Fatehpur, Pilibhit, Fatehgarh, Bijnor, Mainpuri, Gonda, Bahraich, Etah, and Hardoi.