Cash crunch stopping CCTV installations, Telangana, AP tell Hyderabad HC

Hyderabad: The TS and AP governments on Monday told the Hyderabad High Court that they were facing budgetary constraints in installing CCTV cameras in all examination centres to prevent mass copying in SSC examinations.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice P. Naveen Rao was dealing with a PIL filed by G. Srinivas of Eluru seeking to declare the failure of the authorities in not taking effective steps to prevent mass copying and guided copying, as illegal.

Counsels representing both the states informed the court that it will cost more than Rs 36 crore each to install CC cameras at one time in all the examination centres across both the states.

Counsel for the AP government submitted that as the state was coping with a deficit Budget, it is not in a position at this juncture to spend such an amount.
Petitioner’s counsel pointed out that the governments were not spending even 10 percent of the total state Budget on education sector.

While insisting on the need for installation of CC cameras in the larger interest, the bench said that Rs 36 crore was not a big amount to have quality education.

The bench asked both the governments to inform the court about the Budget they would allocate for installation of CCTV cameras in all the examination centres to prevent mass copying in SSC examinations as it wants everything in place by end of January next year.