EDMC to soon install CCTVs in all its schools

 The Corporation has made a Budgetary provision of nearly Rs 4 crore in the current financial year for the purpose. Earlier, the South Corporation had announced installation of CCTV in all its 579 schools and in the first phase it had installed cameras in as many as 20 schools.

According to the EDMC officials, the move has been initiated after several untoward incidents in school premises were reported. The Corporation has floated tender in this regard claiming to start installation in the next couple of weeks. “The move to install the CCTVs has come after a 5-year-old student died after he fell into a septic tank at the  Municipal school run by SDMC in Kapashera area in South-west Delhi in January last. Several incidents have also been reported from EDMC schools following which demands were made to ensure security of the children,” said the official.

The EDMC officials said an amount of Rs 1 lakh will be spent on installation of CCTV cameras in each school. The SDMC has earmarked an amount of Rs 4 crore for the financial year 2016-17. To keep any eye on the security of children, CCTVs will be monitored by the civic officials. They will also monitor CCTVs to address issues related to qualitative delivery of primary education apart from keeping an eye on the security of children. A monitoring team would be constituted in every zone and the EDMC officials at the headquarters would supervise security from the control room which will be set up at the headquarter.

Notably, the SDMC in March last year had announced to install closed-circuit television cameras in its all primary schools. According to the then Mayor Subhash Arya: “To fulfil our commitment to provide foolproof security to students, all schools under the SDMC will have CCTV cameras now. The SDMC has 579 Municipal schools located in South, South-west and parts of West Delhi.” Interestingly, the Delhi government too had came out with a long list of recommendations for improving safety and security of children studying in hundreds of private schools in the Capital. It suggested installation of CCTV cameras along with raising the height of boundary walls and taking attendance at least twice a day to ensure that students missing from their classes are noticed immediately.