NEW DELHI: The Education department of Delhi government will start work for installation of CCTV cameras in Delhi government schools from the middle of April, the work for which is expected to be completed within the deadline set by Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia, said goverement officials.
The project to install CCTV cameras across Delhi will be completed by June 2019, Sisodia had asserted in the Budget speech.
"The department is all set to start the work in all the government schools and we believe that this will be done before the deadline," said an official.
Government sources said that tenders for the CCTVs will be out soon, after which the government will have to wait for the response.
"As soon as the buying of cameras are finalised, the work will start. The internal process is already completed and the schools are being informed regarding the decisions," she said.
The official added that earlier the government had appointed a person in every school to monitor the non-teaching activities and those people will look after the project in the schools.
Earlier, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said that parents of children going to government schools in the city will soon be able to monitor them in their classrooms in real time.
"This will make the whole system transparent and accountable. It will ensure the safety of kids," Kejriwal had said.
Incidents like the rape of a five-year-old girl in a school in Shahdara and the murder of a seven-year-old boy in Ryan International School in Gurugram have increased concerns among parents in the city and spurred the government to move the project ahead, in order to increase the safety of students.
The government had announced an allocation of Rs 175 crore for installation of CCTV cameras in school buildings. A total of 1.2 lakh cameras will be installed.
Out of the total Rs 53,000 crore budget, the Delhi government allocated Rs 13,997 crore for the education sector in the state. This year, the Delhi government allocated 26 per cent of its budget to the education sector, the highest share.
However, some teachers from some schools have argued that the kind of surveillance machinery that the government plans to put in place will transform the school as a place from learning to one where one is being always watched.
The move, some claim, will stop schools from being a place where learning can take place with dignity and trust.