CCTV in city remains as decorative item
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, February 16, 2013:
The grenade attack at a pharmacy in Thangal Bazaar in broad daylight today has once against raised some serious questions on the purpose of installing Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in different parts of the city.
CCTV cameras have been installed as part of the Police modernisation efforts to combat occurrence of crimes in the city under the funding of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
But these CCTV cameras have remained nothing more than mere decorative items.
It was around two years back that CCTV cameras were installed in different parts of Imphal city.
However, the firm which took up the installation process had not given any indication to the concerned authority whether they are functional or not.
Considering the fact that such equipment which could help the Police department in combating crimes in the city is lying un-operational till today speaks volumes of about some possible hidden agendas.
Unidentified armed miscreants hurled a hand grenade which exploded at "Navjivan Pharmacy" in Thangal Bazaar at around 2:30 pm today.
Interestingly, the said pharmacy is located just 30 metres away from a pole where a CCTV camera was installed once but collapsed some time back.
The hand grenade which fell under the shelves of the pharmacy remained calm for a few seconds with smoke coming out from the bomb.
As soon as the salesmen inside the pharmacy realised that it was a bomb, they ducked on to the ground.
After a few seconds, the bomb blew up with a low intensity blasting sound, said one of the salesmen to Hueiyen Lanpao.
Except for a few splinter cut marks on the shelves of the pharmacy, not much of the pharmaceutical goods inside the pharmacy suffered damaged.
The pharmacy belongs to one Rajen Jain.
As soon as the news of the blast spread, a team of police personnel led by RK Tejbir, OC of City Police, rushed into the spot to take stock of situation.
After investigation, the police confirmed that the bomb was a Chinese made hand grenade.
The detonator and the lever of the hand grenade were found burst off while the remaining main portion failed to go off.
If the main portion of the bomb had been exploded, it would have caused serious casualty as there was a customer and two salesmen at the time of the incident.
According to report culled from the site of the incident, people saw the miscreants hurling the bomb and escaped through Alu Gali side.
Had the CCTV installed nearby been operational, the identity of the miscreants could have been established and help the police in arresting the culprit.
Meanwhile, condemning the incident of the bomb blast, pharmacies of Imphal area shut down their shops for the day.
Though the owner of Navjivan Pharmacy claimed that there was no monetary demand from any UG groups, reports reaching Hueiyen Lanpao said that monetary demands amounting to lakhs of rupees have been made to certain pharmacies of Imphal including Navjivan by 3/4 UG groups of the State.