Central Bengaluru’s biggest lung space, Cubbon Park, is getting 120 CCTV cameras. The cameras will not be just used to keep a close watch on criminals but romancing couples as well.
And as soon as the security guard scanning the CCTV feed at a centralised monitoring centre finds a lovebird getting what he thinks is just too close, he will pause the music being played over the loudspeakers that will dot the 197-acre estate and deliver a warning to the couple: Either keep your distance or leave the park.
Moral policing? Not at all, insists SS Mallikarjun, Karnataka’s horticulture minister who heads the department that is coordinating the big upgrade that will also include installing 700 Led lights and landscaping some portions.
But horticulture department officials talk about increasing complaints of indecent behaviour by some couples in a public space.
“We are not making them (young couples) unhappy. They can sit, talk and go,” Mahantesh Murgod, Deputy Director of Horticulture Department told NDTV.
“But some people behave indecently, and other walkers do complain,” he added.
There is no word on what exactly will count as indecent behaviour; apparently the man watching the camera footage at the monitoring centre will decide that.
There is no indication of how much money would be spent on the CCTV cameras either.
Demands for better security and CCTV coverage were first made in 2015 after two security guards allegedly raped an engineering graduate who had come to a tennis club located inside the park.
Social activist Brinda Adige said the cameras could have been on the periphery or on the boundaries of the park.
“But inside the park, I have not heard of CCTV cameras and an announcement system that is actually going to tell the couples that this is right, this is okay, the intensity is not okay, the degree is not okay. This is absolute breach of privacy,” she said.