Srinagar, Mar 28: While the recent theft of baby from Lal Ded Hospital remains unsolved, experts and civil society members have called for the installation of CCTV cameras at the government run hospitals to prevent such incidents in future.
 Though, the Government Medical College Srinagar had outsourced the hospital security recently to the J&K Police, the officials believe manpower is not sufficient to monitor the thefts and other such crimes.
 “Such activities usually take place in seclusion and security person cannot watch every nook and corner of hospital,” they said.
 Calling the incident of baby stealing and abandonment as ‘highly condemnable’, Syed Shakeel Qalander, a member of ‘Civil Society Group’ said there should be strong monitoring mechanism in place in the hospitals, especially in maternity and children hospitals. “These incidents indicate a gross degradation of society. So, there is a need to revamp the administrative mechanism to stop such incidents to happen in future. The installation of CCTV cameras will be an added advantage to modify the mechanism,” he said.
 According to police the CCTV cameras will be an advantage in strengthening the security measures in the hospitals.
 “It’s an effective surveillance mechanism that will not only stop the criminal activity but also help police in investigations,” said a senior police official.
 While most of the private hospitals have a good security set-up including the CCTV cameras, state-run hospitals  lack such facilities in this summer Capital.
 According to private hospitals, the CCTV not only ensures better security it also increases the efficiency of the staff.
 Commenting on the issue Principle GMC, Dr Qazi Masood said there was no role of LD Hospital in the recent theft.
 “However the proposal to install CCTV cameras is a good idea. We will definitely think over it and will send the proposal to government in the next fiscal,” Dr Qazi said.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:00:00 IST