After a long wait, three major municipal hospitals — KEM, Sion and Nair — will get close circuit television (CCTVs) cameras in their premises. To prevent threats from anti-social elements, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to install CCTVs at these municipal hospitals.
According to civic officials, considering probable threat to the city from anti-social elements, the municipal hospitals need to have tight security. Due to the large number of patients’ relatives, visitors, there is an urgent need to keep watch on happenings and other crisis events in municipal hospitals.
The BMC has allotted the contract of installing the CCTV system at three municipal hospitals to M/s Zicom Electronics Security System Ltd at the cost of '4 crore for five years. After a two-year guarantee period, the CCTVs will be maintained for three years by the agency.
There have also been previous incidents of thefts of babies from civic hospitals. In January 2009, a four-day-old boy was stolen from Sion Hospital. In October 2010, a two-month-old baby was stolen from the VN Desai Hospital in Santa Cruz. CCTV cameras showed that a woman in a burqa left the hospital with the infant. In September 2010 at Govandi civic health centre, a two-month-old boy was stolen from his eight-year-old brother, again allegedly by a burqa-clad woman.
“While the BMC has decided to take security deposit from the agency, it will also penalise it for any delay in maintenance and repairs,” said a senior civic official.
