Additional CCTVs installed at Varanasi blast sites

The installations are part of administrative security measures following the blast that ripped through Varanasi when ceremonial 'aarti' of the river Ganga was being performed there.

Inspector General (Varanasi Zone) Rajendra Pal Singh inaugurated the Control Room for CCTV surveillance at Jal Police Station in the presence of Divisional Commisioner Ajay Kumar Upadhyay and police Deputy IG Lalji Shukl yesterday.

The 11 CCTV cameras will help store upto one month of recording which will then be loaded on a CD, SP (Urban) Vijay Bhushan said.

Cameras for surveillance at 23 other ghats and areas around them has also been proposed and a control room will be established for the purpose, he added.

Cameras were installed at the tri-junction going towards Sheetla Ghat, Dashashwamedh Ghat a few days after the explosion.

While 5 CCTVs were installed at Dashashwamedh Ghat with the help of Satyendra Mishra alias Munnan Maharaj of Ganga Seva Nidhi, another 5 CCTVs were installed at Sheetla Ghat with the help of Kishori Raman Dubey alias Babu Maharaj from Gangotri Seva Samiti.

The cost of two sets of cameras is about Rs 1.40 lakh. Two people, including a two-year-old girl, died and several others were left injured in the explosion.