JOIN USThe State Government has made it mandatory for clubs, swimming pools, dancing places, gymnasiums, billiard halls, and other such places of public amusements, to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) inside and outside their premises for better surveillance.
The decision follows complaints of illegal activities thriving in the garb of running clubs. The Home Department issued a government order (GO) on Thursday to implement CCTVs within 60 days.
In Bangalore, CCTV camera installation may cost Rs 17,500 to Rs 25,000 for a set of two cameras and a recording facility.
The GO states: “A number of instances have come to the notice of the police wherein, in the name of providing ‘amusement’, the clubs are indulging in activities like gaming, gambling, betting and playing game of chance. This has been brought to the notice of the Government on many occasions by the police which has resulted in the necessity to regulate such clubs, by issuing guidelines.”
Accordingly, the GO has said that all owners of such establishments have to install CCTVs on the premise as well as at the entrance to keep proper surveillance on the activities inside the parlours.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Additional Chief Secretary, S K Pattanayak said the GO was issued to regulate the “new types of entities” which have sprung up in the State over the past seven or eight years. “We have more or less compiled the various complaints which people have made with regard to these type of entities and decided to issue regulatory guidelines,” said Pattanayak.
He said the CCTVs would be primarily concerned with those clubs, gymnasiums and other spaces of public amusement which “are accessible to the general public. Even if a private club house or other such places of public entertainment in residential complexes, as defined by the GO, is accessible to general public then they will also be covered under the regulations,” said Pattanayak.
Further, the GO has also directed the management of these places of amusements to construct the space “no less than 200 meters from any religious or educational institutions.”
The GO has, apart from the CCTV installation and the construction condition, covers another 35 other regulatory stipulations for running the public places of entertainment.
Ranging from ensuring proper surveillance to providing good ventilation or sufficient air conditioning, the department has taken note of all possible loopholes in keeping a tap on proper facilities and check unlawful activities in all these spaces of amusement.
“We have given the freedom to the district magistrates and the Police Commissioners to implement the GO tailor made to the conditions prevailing in their jurisdiction. They will have the GO implemented according to the space and requirements,” said Pattanayak.
Security concerns
- Install high quality CCTV inside premises & at the entrance
- No entry for un-accompanied minors below the age of 16 yrs into amusement places
- Allow police/legal agencies for inspection
- Premises should be sound proofed
- Must provide clean and separate rest room for women, employees, physically challenged
- No liquor & drugs should be allowed within these premises