Thiruvananthapuram: There is no end in sight to fiscal profligacy of the Kerala Government. Even after wasting Rs one crore for buying 310 body-worn cameras for the police, the Motor Vehicles Department has finalized a proposal to buy another 356 similar cameras from the same company spending Rs 89 lakh.
More than half the police officers who had received the cameras which are attached to their uniform had returned it to the department within a month complaining of experiencing heat from the devices on their chest area.
Incidentally, a ‘purchase lobby’ at the Police Headquarters was allegedly behind the camera deal. The lobby had earlier ordered all police personnel to wear uniforms stitched by a particular firm. It had also issued another order which said that every police station in Kerala was to be painted in the same colour manufactured by a specific company. Graft involved in these orders was pointed out in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report. However, nobody at the Police HQ has faced any action so far.
“No annual maintenance contract was signed by the police with the company which supplied the cameras. So, the devices could not be repaired. Moreover, the purchase took place when Loknath Behera was the state police chief,” said an officer at the Police HQ explaining the helpless of the present dispensation.
At the same time, a section of officers at the Police HQ suspect that the personnel who had returned the cameras were carrying out an organised plan to sabotage the real-time transmission of visuals and audio during vehicle inspection to the control room. Incidentally, the police officers at the HQ are yet to conduct an inquiry into the reported heating up of the cameras or take up the matter with the company which supplied the devices.
