Turning down concerns about safety and privacy of students over the Government’s plan to install CCTV cameras in classrooms, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday said the live feed will be available only to parents and the access will be password protected.

Sisodia’s statement came after the Supreme Court dismissed a PIL challenging the AAP Government’s decision to install closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras in classrooms of Delhi schools and live stream the feed to parents of students.

“The feed of classrooms will only be made available to parents, who will be able to access it after getting a secure password for a smart phone for a limited period of time daily without any audio. Teachers, parents and students are happy with this latest initiative and our Government will prove the skeptics wrong once again like it has done repeatedly on its initiatives in the field of education,” Sisodia said in a statement.

“We have decided to install the CCTV cameras after careful planning. Well thought out Standing Operating Procedures (SoPs) have been put in place. It is beyond any reasonable understanding as to why cynics are creating a hue and cry about the project,” he added.

Sisodia said that education is one of the top priorities of our government and the world has seen the turnaround that our government has been able to achieve in this field ranging from infrastructure in schools to quality of education being imparted to students and encouragement for teachers in all forms. He added that safety and security of students in schools and transparency in imparting education plays an extremely important role.

A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi Friday did not agree with the PIL’s contention that the installation and transmission of live feeds of CCTV to the parents would infringe the fundamental right to privacy as the kids are incapable to give consent and the parents’ approval has not been taken.

The live-streaming of CCTV feeds will be done to random people which will be a breach of privacy. There were adolescents in schools and it will be a breach of their privacy if the CCTV feed was live streamed, the PIL had claimed.

The plea had sought setting aside of the Delhi government’s September 11, 2017, decision of installing CCTV cameras in classroom and life streaming the feeds to the parents.

He further said that my disappointment is with well meaning individuals, who aired their opinions with either half baked information or after having been influenced by motivated propaganda.  “I am making it clear that the feed of classrooms will only be

made available to parents, who will be able to access it after getting a secure password for a smart-phone for a limited period of time daily without any audio,” he said, adding that teachers, parents and students are happy with this latest initiative and our government will prove the sceptics wrong once again like it has done repeatedly on its initiatives in the field of education.