By Imkong Walling
Hit-and-runs, road rage, drunk driving, burglaries, pick-pocketing, traffic violations, and crime in general would likely not go unnoticed or unpunished in Kohima and Dimapur. That, however, is only hazarding a guess going by what the Nagaland police chief announced.
Director General of Police (DGP), Rupin Sharma, on January 23, announced what was described to be a 24x7 surveillance grid, covering the two towns. According to the DGP, the proposal is for an AI-enabled “carpet network” of CCTVs and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras connected to a central hub, allowing police to track vehicles used in crime, and suspects, in real-time.
New Delhi was said to have agreed to fund the proposed project, and expected to go operational in the next 4 to 6 months.
Well and good, but the question is— Can it be sustained? Operation, maintenance and continuity is a trait rare to come across in Nagaland when it comes to public projects requiring frequent upkeep; security in this case.
Going down memory lane, some 10 years ago, Dimapur was witness to a similar project, comprising a series of security cameras installed at a number of strategic road intersections with a monitoring station based at the Office of the Commissioner of Police. The Home Minister of the day, who inaugurated the project, said that it would go a long way in enhancing public safety and security, while acting as deterrence to potential offenders.
Living up to tradition, the monitoring station went quietly defunct within a few months. The cause for the discontinuation remained unexplained. It was only at the January 23, 2026, press conference that the DGP admitted to “multiple issues” plaguing the project. The CCTVs reportedly were operated in isolation without a centralised feed, or connected to a central hub.
Sometime in 2018, there was another initiative linked to augmenting security and transparency. It involved body and dash cams. The instruction, that time, was to ensure at least one member of foot patrol squads wear body camera, besides installing dashboard cameras on patrol vehicles. Like the short-lived CCTV project of 2016, this initiative was discontinued without any explanation.
In contrast, the latest proposal is touted as a comprehensive project, complete with ground-level infrastructure and well-staffed, round-the-clock control rooms.
Reliable internet connectivity will be an essential and, according to the DGP, the Central government has agreed to provide free internet. But it comes with a catch— it would be only for the first year, rousing apprehension that it would meet a similar fate as its predecessor.
The DGP spoke of having the state government and New Delhi reimbursing annual running costs, and the prospect of the public assisting by providing spaces for equipment and electricity connections at nominal costs.
Besides this, the DGP also proposed a self-sustaining model where revenue collected from traffic fines (via e-challans) could cover the maintenance costs. The e-challan proposal also reportedly remains stalled, unable to scale bureaucratic barricade.
The question is whether the elected leaders, the bureaucracy and the police hierarchy are ready to welcome the digitisation of revenue/fine collection in a governance system acclimatised to siphoning of public funds.
Moral of the story: Technological aids are only as good as its human implementer’s attitude, and equally importantly, willingness to progress.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
