Bangalore:
After the Delhi High Court blast on September 7, the security at Karnataka High Court had been beefed up, besides introducing new security measures. But these days there are hardly any gunmen in the High Court premises.
Talking to media persons after the Delhi blast, state Home Minister R Ashok had said that he had directed officials to install more than 100 closed-circuit television cameras in the High Court premises and had called the tender for the same.
But sadly, to this day only 16 closed-circuit television cameras have been installed, out of which only 14 are in working condition. Besides this, there is only one computer to monitor and view the entire camera footage.
There was a platoon of Karnataka State Reserve Police and City Armed Reserve deployed at the High Court, 40 extra police personnel with weapons and at the entry gates there were manual security checks with hand-weapon detectors.
More than 10 weapon-detector doors were brought to the High Court, but now hardly any police personnel carry a gun or any weapon.
The new luggage scanning detectors at the entry points are kept like show pieces and are non-functional.
It is surprising to note that the entrance to the court canteen has no detectors.
The closed-circuit television cameras are in such a bad state that they reportedly work effectively only during the day and at night the visuals are barely visible. As the metal detectors and scanners are not functioning properly, it makes the task of checking and frisking hundreds of litigants, lawyers and visitors a tough job for the security personnel.