A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva lashed out at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the police, saying they were “playing badminton” with the proposals by sending them back and forth over various queries.
“How long will you play the game of badminton? Either they are idiots sitting there who do not understand or they are doing it on purpose,” the bench said.
“Why are you dilly-dallying? It seems you don’t want to increase the police force,” it said and asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain to ensure that “the game of badminton” does not go on.
“Get it done and over with,” it said.
On the issue of putting up CCTVs in Delhi, the police said a survey was carried out by Broadcast Engineering Consultants India Ltd (BECIL), which submitted a project report stating that Rs 404.32 crore would be the cost of installing 6630 cameras in 44 red-flagged areas of the city.
After going through the affidavit submitted by the police, the court said “Rs 404 crore seems to be on the upper side” and added that it would not give its stamp of approval to the proposal.
It also observed that the police was “more interested” in putting up CCTV cameras “as it means money”.
The police in its affidavit, filed through its standing counsel Rajesh Mahajan, has said that the amount included the cost of accessories of installing CCTVs as well as the monitoring system.
The affidavit was filed in response to the court’s order of March 25 to expedite the proposal to induct more cops and install CCTVs within two months of identifying the vulnerable areas in the capital.
The court was hearing a PIL initiated by it after the December 16 gangrape incident and in which an application was filed by advocate Meera Bhatia seeking that the CCTV cameras installed for US President Barack Obama’s security during his January visit should not be removed.
PTI