Cabinet clears AI surveillance cameras and portable signal jammers for prisons

Cabinet clears AI surveillance cameras and portable signal jammers for prisons Residents around Parappana Agrahara fear network disruptions to aggravate.

Key points

• Manjunath on July 21 wrote to the Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya M.
• According to the residents, mobile connectivity becomes particularly unreliable in the areas surrounding the prison, affecting phone calls, OTP-based transactions, Wi-Fi connectivity and other internet-dependent services.
• We are unable to create emergency calls or even place online orders as OTPs do not arrive on time.
• Nevertheless, the decision has produced residents around the prison complex.

After a number of instances of employ of mobile phones inside the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison have come to light, the latest being of former MP Prajwal Revanna, the State Cabinet on Friday decided to equip prisons with AI-based surveillance cameras and portable signal jammers.

According to Home Minister Priyanka Kharge, the decision is part of the modernisation of the State's prisons and the new technologies would strengthen surveillance and prevent unauthorised communication and other activities inside prisons.

Notably, the proposed technology will allow the prison authorities to monitor premises more effectively while regulated calling facilities are projected to provide inmates with controlled access to telephone services.

Nevertheless, the decision has produced residents around the prison complex. This person have been suffering persistent network disruptions due to jammers at the jail, anxious. They fear that the proposed expansion of jammers could worsen an matter they have been raising with the authorities for years now, to no relief.

"We are unable to create emergency calls or even place online orders as OTPs do not arrive on time. The jammers appear to be blocking signals outside the prison rather than being confined to the prison premises, " remarked Mohan Kumar, a resident and employee of a private firm.

BJP MP C.N. Manjunath on July 21 wrote to the Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and sought his intervention over the disruption of mobile and internet services around the prison.

For now, cabinet clears AI surveillance cameras and portable signal jammers for prisons remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.