A Comptroller and
Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in Parliament on Wednesday disclosed that
the percentage of satisfactorily functioning CCTV cameras out of a total 3,870
installed in Delhi by the Delhi police is “abysmally low”. According
to the findings of the report on ‘Manpower and Logistics Management in Delhi
Police’ “the percentage of cameras functioning satisfactorily is abysmally
low, ranging from entirely defunct camera (pilot phase) to 31%to 44% defunct cameras
in various other phases.”

The report also
flagged the sharp rise of 275% in the crimes registered in Delhi under the
Indian Penal Code in 2019 as compared to 2013. It, however, said the Delhi
Police attributed this sharp increase to comprehensive reporting of crimes and
the facility to lodge e-FIRs.

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The report said the
Delhi Police is using a 20-year-old trunking system (APCO), which is 10 years
beyond its normal life span. A trunking system is a two-way radio
communication.

“Proposals for
up-gradation of these sets were initiated 10 years ago but even tenders have
not been finalized yet. The number of wireless sets under the conventional
system declined from 9,638 in June 2009 to 6,172 in June 2019 as the sets
condemned during the period were not regularly replaced,” the report said.

The CAG report also
pointed out “the functioning of the Delhi police being affected by
shortages in manpower”.

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“MHA had approved
12,518 posts with advice to operationalise 3,139 posts first and then remaining
9,379 posts after deployment of 3,139 personnel on ground. However, due to
failure of Delhi Police to recruit against these 3,139 posts, the remaining
9,379 approved posts could not be operationalised (August 2020),” it said.

The report further stated
that representation of women in Delhi Police was 11.75%, which was much lower
than the desired target of 33 per cent.

The housing
satisfaction was also quite low as there were only 15,360 quarters available
for about 80,000 Delhi Police personnel.

The report said only
one out of the 72 police stations test-checked in the audit had staff as
per the norms prescribed by the Bureau of Police Research and Development
(BPR&D).

“In these 72
police stations, we found, there was 35 per cent shortage of manpower. Acute
shortage of staff has put the police personnel under tremendous strain as their
average daily duty hours in the six test-checked police districts (Central, New
Delhi, South, Dwarka, North East and Rohini) ranged from 12 to 15 hours against
eight hours as prescribed under the Model Police Act 2006,” it said.