More cameras for a smooth Onam festival

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  Technology, in particular surveillance cameras, seems to be the latest mantra of the City Police in enforcing law. They have chosen to rely on the same technology in ensuring the smooth conduct of the Onam festivities in the city too. Every nook and corner of the city where festival action takes place will be under the watchful eyes of a closely-knit mesh of surveillance cameras, the pick of the season being a network of innovative moving cameras.  The City Police have decided to install as many as 40 moving cameras at festival centres. They will be set up at the entrances and narrow lanes near festival centres, where there would be a heavy crowd and little police surveillance. The cameras will be controlled from the special control room that will function inside the Kanakakkunnu Palace premises.  ‘’The moving cameras are mainly aimed at people who take the opportunity in the heavy crowd for eve-teasing and pickpocketing. The cameras, that are suspended on cables, can move along the length of the narrow lanes and keep a close watch over the place. The camera will also help keep a track of the culprit if a crime takes place,’’ City Police Commissioner Manoj Abraham said. Besides the 40 moving cameras, the City Police will install 160 security surveillance cameras, all of them controlled from the special control room, at different parts of the city. This will be in addition to the already-existing surveillance cameras that number over 50.  About six special action teams will be constituted for deployment at the main festival centres, which are the Chandrasekharan Nair Stadium, Poojappura ground, Kanakakkunnu Palace, Museum auditorium and Putharikandam ground, during festival days.  A total of 1,300 police personnel, including 1,200 uniformed officers and 100 plainclothesmen, will be present. They will also include 135 women officers who will be deployed across the city as part of ensuring law and order. They will work round the clock under the orders of different Assistant Commissioners of Police. The shadow police, as many as 80 of them, and 350 officers of the City Traffic Police will also aid the City Police in ensuring the smooth conduct of programmes during the Onam.