# Christian concerns in Chattisgarh, CCTV gaps, and protests in Odisha

An episode of [3 Things](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1406730235), 29 Sep 2026, 23 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75418577/3_things_2026_september_29_v_1.mp3

First, we speak with The Indian Express' Jayprakash S. Naidu about certain notices put up outside churches in the Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh saying that non-Christians entering the church are doing so on their own responsibility. He talks about the communal disturbances occurring in the state and the concerns of the Christian community. Next, we speak with The Indian Express' Brendan Dabhi about Gujarat's CCTV network. He talks about a case of five year old's kidnapping, for which the Gujarat police was dependent on the CCTV network and the gaps in the system that were highlighted during the case. (7:14) Lastly, we discuss a BJD-led protest in Odisha against the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2026 (19:58) Hosted by Niharika Nanda Produced by Shashank Bhargava, Ichha Sharma, and Niharika Nanda Edited and mixed by Suresh Pawar

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: In this episode, we talk about Gujarat, where the kidnapping
[0:03] Speaker 1: of a 5-year-old turned into a 48-hour police chase and
[0:07] Speaker 1: revealed major gaps in the state's CCTV surveillance network. We
[0:11] Speaker 1: also talk about BJD-led protests in Odisha against the Mines
[0:15] Speaker 1: and Minerals Development and Regulation Amendment Act 2026. But first,
[0:20] Speaker 1: we talk about a series of notices that have been
[0:22] Speaker 1: put up outside churches in Chhattisgarh. Hi, I am Niharika
[0:29] Speaker 1: Nanda and you are listening to 3 Things, the Indian
[0:32] Speaker 1: Express News Show. The town of Dhamtari is located around
[0:40] Speaker 1: 80 kilometres from Raipur and there, outside the red brick
[0:44] Speaker 1: building of a 125-year-old Mennonite church, is a notice that
[0:48] Speaker 1: has been catching the attention of people over the last
[0:51] Speaker 1: few days. The notice reads, According to the rules of
[0:54] Speaker 1: the church management, entry into the church building for worship
[0:58] Speaker 1: is only for Christians. Others, if they come voluntarily, will
[1:02] Speaker 1: be responsible for it themselves. And this is not the
[1:05] Speaker 1: only church where such a notice has been put up.
[1:08] Speaker 1: Over the last month, many more churches in Dhamtari have
[1:11] Speaker 1: displayed similar warnings. The Christian community says that the notices
[1:15] Speaker 1: are a precautionary measure amid tensions and instances of communal
[1:19] Speaker 1: disturbances that have been witnessed in other parts of the state.
[1:23] Speaker 2: What also needs to be noted is.
[1:25] Speaker 1: That the Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Bill 2026 came into
[1:28] Speaker 1: effect last month and requires a person intending to convert
[1:32] Speaker 1: to submit a declaration to the competent authority. So, what
[1:36] Speaker 1: is the reason behind these notices?
[1:38] Speaker 2: What has led to concerns within the Christian community?
[1:41] Speaker 1: And how, if at all, are they connected to Chhattisgarh's
[1:44] Speaker 1: new anti-conversion law? To understand all this, we speak to
[1:47] Speaker 1: the Indian Express's Jayaprakash S. Naidu, who has been reporting
[1:51] Speaker 1: on the issue. Jayaprakash, firstly tell us, why are there
[1:55] Speaker 1: these signs outside churches in Chhattisgarh?
[1:58] Speaker 2: What reasoning has been given for them?
[2:00] Speaker 3: So before I begin, I need to tell our listeners
[2:03] Speaker 3: that religious conversion has been a major political issue in Chhattisgarh.
[2:06] Speaker 3: And this has been since the last assembly elections in 2023.
[2:10] Speaker 3: And also for at least the last eight years, there
[2:12] Speaker 3: have been communal disturbances, especially in the tribal-dominated Vastar region.
[2:16] Speaker 3: Coming to your question, earlier this year, Christian community leaders
[2:20] Speaker 3: claimed that the district administration has gradually received over a
[2:23] Speaker 3: thousand self-declaration forms from non-Christians in Dhamtari. So these people
[2:27] Speaker 3: said they were going to church out of their own choice.
[2:30] Speaker 3: So this led to communal disturbances and to avoid coming
[2:33] Speaker 3: under any kind of attack, the minority community leaders came
[2:37] Speaker 3: up with this idea. So over a month ago, these
[2:39] Speaker 3: banners were put up outside Dhamtari. the churches and about
[2:42] Speaker 3: 8 to 10 churches in Dhamtari town and Dhamtari is
[2:47] Speaker 3: next to Chattisgarh's capital Raipur. So the committee leaders have
[2:50] Speaker 3: appealed to pastors who conduct prayers at home to put
[2:52] Speaker 3: up these banners outside their homes as well.
[2:55] Speaker 1: And tell us about this anti-conversion law that was passed
[2:59] Speaker 1: in the state recently and how exactly are the notices
[3:03] Speaker 1: connected to it?
[3:04] Speaker 3: Yes, so I mentioned above, these committee leaders said hundreds
[3:08] Speaker 3: of non-Christians gave these self-declaration forms because they wanted to
[3:12] Speaker 3: attend prayers out of their own personal choice. So this
[3:16] Speaker 3: happened following the Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Bill 2026, which
[3:20] Speaker 3: was passed in the Legislative Assembly this March. So under
[3:24] Speaker 3: this bill, anyone who intends to convert will first have
[3:26] Speaker 3: to submit an application to the district magistrate or any
[3:29] Speaker 3: other officer authorized by the district magistrate. So this information
[3:32] Speaker 3: will then be made public and there will be a
[3:34] Speaker 3: 30-day period where the DM will take objections from people
[3:39] Speaker 3: against the conversion. So the community leaders said that this
[3:42] Speaker 3: law is unconstitutional. Hence, the non-Christians who are going to
[3:45] Speaker 3: church now, they are giving self-declaration forms instead of applications.
[3:49] Speaker 3: And because of this flurry of applications, right-wing workers started
[3:53] Speaker 3: troubling the pastors and other non-Christians going to church. So finally,
[3:56] Speaker 3: the police in the district, they called for a peace
[3:59] Speaker 3: meeting on September 15. And at the meeting, the community leader,
[4:03] Speaker 3: Diamond Phyllis, he's the general secretary of the Dhamtari district
[4:07] Speaker 3: Christian forum, He said that orally they were told that
[4:10] Speaker 3: non-Christians should not be allowed to come for prayers, especially
[4:13] Speaker 3: home prayers. So the tribal community here is of the
[4:15] Speaker 3: view that first the tribal should not convert and if
[4:18] Speaker 3: they do convert, they should not get tribal status and benefits.
[4:22] Speaker 2: And Jaiprakash, you.
[4:23] Speaker 1: Write that the Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh, like other parts
[4:26] Speaker 1: of the state, has been witnessing communal disturbances.
[4:30] Speaker 2: So tell us more about that.
[4:32] Speaker 3: Yes, the core issue is that once people start following Christianity,
[4:36] Speaker 3: especially tribals in the state, they stop following the tribal culture.
[4:40] Speaker 3: So this enrages tribals who think that their customs and
[4:44] Speaker 3: traditions will be lost. Secondly, tribals do not allow the
[4:47] Speaker 3: burial of Christians in their own graveyards. So there have
[4:50] Speaker 3: been a lot of fights, riots and social boycotts over this.
[4:53] Speaker 3: So one such case over burial rights last year went
[4:55] Speaker 3: to the Supreme Court as well. This case was Ramesh
[4:58] Speaker 3: Bhagel versus the state of Chhattisgarh. And several fights over
[5:00] Speaker 3: burial rights have happened across the Basta region. And in
[5:03] Speaker 3: the Supreme Court case, as I mentioned, the court had
[5:06] Speaker 3: also asked the government to make adequate graveyards for Christians.
[5:09] Speaker 1: And has this always been the case? Or is this
[5:12] Speaker 1: something that has developed more recently? And also, what has
[5:16] Speaker 1: the experience of Christians in the state been like over
[5:19] Speaker 1: the years?
[5:20] Speaker 3: So answering your first question, the development of the banners
[5:22] Speaker 3: was reiterated after the September 15 peace meeting. About your
[5:25] Speaker 3: second question regarding the situation of Christians, as I mentioned above,
[5:28] Speaker 3: we have seen right-wing workers objecting to home prayers in
[5:31] Speaker 3: Doorg and Raipur districts. There have been fights, there have
[5:33] Speaker 3: been FIRs, cross-FIRs. So, there are two notable cases which
[5:38] Speaker 3: were reported. One was the arrest of Kerala nuns who
[5:40] Speaker 3: were trying to employ three tribal women from Narayanpur last year.
[5:43] Speaker 3: It became a national issue. The other case was the
[5:46] Speaker 3: vandalization of Magneto Mall in Raipur by the Bajrang Dal. So,
[5:49] Speaker 3: this happened because the mall had put up Christian decorations
[5:51] Speaker 3: where a right-wing group had called for a ban during Christmas. So,
[5:56] Speaker 3: the ban was called as a sign of protest against
[5:59] Speaker 3: the riots which took place in Kanker again over burial rites.
[6:01] Speaker 4: So, that is kind of the situation. Right.
[6:04] Speaker 1: And what are some of the main concerns that Christian
[6:07] Speaker 1: organizations and the wider community have at the moment?
[6:11] Speaker 3: So they are scared of the right-wing workers because they
[6:14] Speaker 3: say that the right-wing workers, they shout at them, they
[6:16] Speaker 3: abuse and they disrupt the religious activities involving non-Christians who
[6:19] Speaker 3: come for prayers. So, you know, they do not want
[6:22] Speaker 3: to get involved with the right-wing workers and hence these
[6:25] Speaker 3: precautionary measures are being taken.
[6:27] Speaker 2: And Jayaprakash, how do we see this playing out now?
[6:30] Speaker 3: So honestly, the issue is far from being over and
[6:33] Speaker 3: we will definitely see and hear more escalations, especially when
[6:36] Speaker 3: the elections come near. And I say this because during
[6:38] Speaker 3: the last assembly elections, hundreds of tribals who had started
[6:41] Speaker 3: following Christianity without getting converted were socially boycotted from their
[6:46] Speaker 3: villages in the Basta region. Basta is a tribal dominated region.
[6:49] Speaker 3: Then these tribals, you know, after being socially boycotted, they
[6:53] Speaker 3: had to stay in an indoor stadium in Narayanpur and
[6:56] Speaker 3: before a peace meeting was called and then they were
[6:58] Speaker 3: sent back. Also, in the election year, a church was
[7:01] Speaker 3: attacked and vandalized in Narayanpur. It was a huge tribal
[7:04] Speaker 3: mob which did it. And it was also led by
[7:06] Speaker 3: the BJP leaders. And yeah, that is the situation right now.
[7:14] Speaker 1: And next, we look at Gujarat, where the kidnapping of
[7:17] Speaker 1: a five-year-old boy turned into a 48-hour police chase across
[7:21] Speaker 1: two districts and eventually revealed major gaps in the state's
[7:25] Speaker 1: CCTV surveillance network. Earlier this month, a farmer couple from
[7:29] Speaker 1: a village in the Amreli district told the police that
[7:32] Speaker 1: their 5-year-old son had been taken away by a man
[7:35] Speaker 1: who had been staying with them as a guest. Now,
[7:38] Speaker 1: the police had some basic clues like the suspect's name,
[7:42] Speaker 1: the motorcycle number and the colour of the child's t-shirt.
[7:45] Speaker 2: But what they needed was a visual trail.
[7:48] Speaker 1: So, over the next two days, police scanned footage from
[7:51] Speaker 1: 172 CCTV cameras along with several police and private cameras
[7:56] Speaker 1: to piece together the route. Now what stands out here
[7:59] Speaker 1: is that at several points, the trail almost went cold. Basically,
[8:04] Speaker 1: several cameras were not working and some had faulty timestamps.
[8:08] Speaker 1: And this is despite the fact that Gujarat has a
[8:11] Speaker 1: statewide CCTV network monitored through command centres. So to understand
[8:16] Speaker 1: how did Gujarat police track the kidnapper across 100 kilometres
[8:20] Speaker 1: and where did the CCTV network help or fail, my
[8:23] Speaker 1: colleague Chasharma is joined by The Indian Express's Brendan Dabhi.
[8:28] Speaker 5: Brendan, we understand that Gujarat so far has a state-level
[8:32] Speaker 5: command and control centre and 34 district-level centres under the
[8:36] Speaker 5: Vishwas Surveillance Project. So before we talk about this particular instance,
[8:42] Speaker 5: could you help us understand what are these systems and
[8:45] Speaker 5: how do they work together?
[8:47] Speaker 4: Right. So, the Gujarat police has installed its cameras under
[8:52] Speaker 4: various schemes over the last several years. All of that
[8:55] Speaker 4: has been integrated into something called the Vishwas scheme. Now,
[9:00] Speaker 4: under this scheme, under Vishwas 1.0 and 2.0, several thousand cameras,
[9:05] Speaker 4: for example, 7000 cameras, in the first phase and 12,000
[9:10] Speaker 4: cameras in the second phase were installed in more than
[9:13] Speaker 4: 100 cities and tier 2 towns across Gujarat. Now planning
[9:17] Speaker 4: is underway for tier 3 and these cameras are handled
[9:20] Speaker 4: by the Trinetra Command and Control System in Gandhinagar and
[9:25] Speaker 4: at the Netram centers in each district. And this is
[9:28] Speaker 4: how these cameras are connected to the police control room
[9:32] Speaker 4: and from there surveillance can take place. Right.
[9:35] Speaker 5: And speaking of the case, when investigators began, what did
[9:39] Speaker 5: they actually have to work with? And what happened when
[9:42] Speaker 5: the suspect crossed into another district?
[9:45] Speaker 4: So what happened was this accused person, he took the child,
[9:49] Speaker 4: left from the village and crossed about three other villages
[9:54] Speaker 4: in the western direction. Police found surveillance from select sites
[9:59] Speaker 4: in Amreli district and saw that he was headed in
[10:01] Speaker 4: the western direction towards Rajkot district. But then they lost
[10:05] Speaker 4: him in the rural areas. there was about fifty kilometres
[10:09] Speaker 4: near the border of the two districts where they were
[10:12] Speaker 4: confused about which direction he may have taken because there
[10:15] Speaker 4: could be more than a dozen or two dozen rural
[10:17] Speaker 4: roads in that area so he could have gone north
[10:20] Speaker 4: west or south And that is where they contacted both
[10:24] Speaker 4: the Rajkot rural police to check their Netram cameras as
[10:27] Speaker 4: well as the Trinitra Command and Control Centre in Gandhinagar.
[10:31] Speaker 4: And there they found the clue that the accused was
[10:33] Speaker 4: headed west towards Rajkot district that they got from Gandhinagar.
[10:38] Speaker 4: And then the Rajkot rural police through their systems found
[10:41] Speaker 4: him entering the major town of Jetpur because there were
[10:44] Speaker 4: cameras there. So that is why the Amreli police could
[10:47] Speaker 4: directly skip 50 kilometers ahead. and directly start the search
[10:51] Speaker 4: at Jetpur.
[10:52] Speaker 5: And Brendan, you highlight how once the public network failed,
[10:56] Speaker 5: officers began knocking on doors at shops, even petrol pumps
[11:01] Speaker 5: and other establishments.
[11:03] Speaker 4: So that came later on when the Amarili police teams
[11:06] Speaker 4: were deployed to Jaipur in Rajkot. That time the accused
[11:10] Speaker 4: was caught several times. First in automatic number plate recognition
[11:14] Speaker 4: cameras which are called ANPR cameras and then the Rajkot
[11:17] Speaker 4: rural police also cross-checked them with other visual cameras and
[11:20] Speaker 4: then they found the accused and child travelling on the
[11:24] Speaker 4: bike with the same number plate and they could positively
[11:27] Speaker 4: identify the child because he was wearing a bright saffron shirt.
[11:32] Speaker 4: So that is how they came to know that he
[11:33] Speaker 4: had crossed through Jaipur in several locations and then possibly
[11:37] Speaker 4: exited this town north towards Rajkot. And that's when everything
[11:42] Speaker 4: got dicey because where the last camera of Jaipur police
[11:46] Speaker 4: ended at that place, there were several roads. Among them,
[11:50] Speaker 4: the two major roads were one going northwest towards several
[11:54] Speaker 4: villages like Mewasa and Rabarika and the other was an
[11:58] Speaker 4: even bigger road which is a national highway which comes
[12:02] Speaker 4: from the north to Jetpur and then turns west to
[12:04] Speaker 4: go to the coast to Porbandar. So, that is where
[12:07] Speaker 4: the police had to decide whether the accused had gone
[12:09] Speaker 4: towards Rajkot or towards Porbandar and that was an important junction.
[12:13] Speaker 4: but there they didn't find many cameras so that several
[12:17] Speaker 4: teams that they had had to be deployed in multiple
[12:20] Speaker 4: places in order to search for wayside cameras at the
[12:23] Speaker 4: wayside hotels and garages and shops and so on and
[12:26] Speaker 4: so forth but they could not find many cameras in
[12:29] Speaker 4: fact some of the cameras installed over there on the
[12:32] Speaker 4: highway were also not working they were non-functional so they
[12:36] Speaker 4: had to make more of an effort finally they did
[12:39] Speaker 4: find two sets of cameras on poles that had been
[12:43] Speaker 4: put up on dividers on both sides of the junction
[12:46] Speaker 4: going into Jaipur city. But nobody knew where these cameras
[12:50] Speaker 4: were connected to and where they could see the footage
[12:53] Speaker 4: of these cameras. So these teams went off in different
[12:56] Speaker 4: directions and they went to Pithadia toll plaza which is
[12:59] Speaker 4: towards Rajkot. But they didn't have the connection. They tried
[13:02] Speaker 4: to search locally and didn't find it. Finally they got
[13:04] Speaker 4: a lead that it was possibly connected to the Dumyani
[13:07] Speaker 4: toll plaza which was 50 kilometers in the other direction
[13:10] Speaker 4: towards Porbandar.
[13:12] Speaker 5: Right, and this is where they faced a mammoth task.
[13:14] Speaker 5: Officers had to essentially examine almost 180 camera feeds and
[13:20] Speaker 5: found the suspect on the 176th. But Brendan, what you
[13:23] Speaker 5: spoke of earlier, the blind spots, you also highlight how
[13:27] Speaker 5: Gujarat has around 1.8 lakh CCTV cameras across government and
[13:33] Speaker 5: private establishments. So how can a major investigation still encounter
[13:38] Speaker 5: a 10-kilometre surveillance dark spot?
[13:41] Speaker 3: Right.
[13:42] Speaker 4: So after reaching Pithadia Toll Plaza, they made sure that
[13:46] Speaker 4: the accused had crossed it and was heading in the
[13:48] Speaker 4: direction of Rajkot, in the general direction of Rajkot along
[13:50] Speaker 4: the National Highway. But then there was a lack of
[13:53] Speaker 4: CCTV cameras because most of the CCTV cameras, especially those
[13:58] Speaker 4: put under the Vishwas system, are in the major cities
[14:01] Speaker 4: and the major towns. But there is a significant blind
[14:05] Speaker 4: spot in the rural, peripheral, mountainous and remote areas of
[14:09] Speaker 4: the state where these gaps still exist and they are
[14:11] Speaker 4: called black spots and the police must rely on privately
[14:16] Speaker 4: owned road facing cameras in order to help them. But
[14:19] Speaker 4: these are not always reliable, especially in rural areas where,
[14:23] Speaker 4: you know, they may face several problems like there may
[14:25] Speaker 4: be wrong timestamps or there may be no screens or
[14:31] Speaker 4: they may have faulty memory chips. You know, so a
[14:33] Speaker 4: lot of problems are there. In one case, they found
[14:37] Speaker 4: a CCTV system that was working. And in fact, its
[14:40] Speaker 4: memory chip was intact. Its screens were intact. All of
[14:42] Speaker 4: it was intact. But the timestamp showed January 2000 while
[14:46] Speaker 4: they were currently in September 2026. So they actually had
[14:50] Speaker 4: to calculate the time over 25 years of time in
[14:53] Speaker 4: order to get the correct time and place of the
[14:57] Speaker 4: when the accused would have passed by with the child.
[14:59] Speaker 4: So in that way, they finally did reach Veerpur village.
[15:03] Speaker 4: Veerpur town, it's a pilgrimage town that comes before Rajkot.
[15:07] Speaker 4: And going inside, they finally found the accused and the
[15:11] Speaker 4: child using a mix of human intelligence and CCTV footage.
[15:16] Speaker 4: And that too private CCTV footage. So it was a
[15:18] Speaker 4: very difficult task, but the police achieved it regardless.
[15:22] Speaker 2: And Brendan, the.
[15:22] Speaker 5: Police actually makes a counter argument here that you cannot
[15:27] Speaker 5: and perhaps don't need to put CCTV cameras in every village.
[15:32] Speaker 4: So how do we read that? So it is to
[15:34] Speaker 4: be read in the way that, you know, there should
[15:36] Speaker 4: be public and government participation in the security of everyone, basically.
[15:44] Speaker 4: So what the police is saying that cameras may not
[15:46] Speaker 4: be viable and the systems themselves might not be viable
[15:49] Speaker 4: because several technical difficulties also, you know, you need proper
[15:52] Speaker 4: internet connection, power connection, technical expertise nearby in case there's
[15:57] Speaker 4: a problem. So all of this may not be feasible
[15:59] Speaker 4: at the extremely rural level. For example, in the Narmada
[16:02] Speaker 4: districts and all, the police are trying something new called
[16:05] Speaker 4: community surveillance. where in marketplaces and everywhere where there are
[16:10] Speaker 4: no cameras, trades persons and business people are being exhorted
[16:15] Speaker 4: to get together and purchase CCTV cameras and put them
[16:18] Speaker 4: up for collective security. So these kind of things are
[16:22] Speaker 4: happening at the local level, at the district level, but
[16:24] Speaker 4: we have to see whether it is taken up at
[16:26] Speaker 4: the state level or not. However, today itself there's been
[16:29] Speaker 4: a development. Just a few days after our story was published,
[16:33] Speaker 4: Gujarat Police DGP G.S. Malik has asked all the commissioners
[16:37] Speaker 4: and superintendents of police to look at community engagement and
[16:41] Speaker 4: try to ask more and more privately owned CCTV cameras
[16:45] Speaker 4: to be added to the police system, where it has
[16:47] Speaker 4: already taken place in major cities. But this could double
[16:52] Speaker 4: and triple the potential of the system when done in
[16:55] Speaker 4: rural areas. Right.
[16:57] Speaker 5: And so what is the government trying to build now?
[17:00] Speaker 4: Right. The Gujarat police is currently about to host a
[17:03] Speaker 4: hackathon at the end of September where they are trying
[17:05] Speaker 4: to integrate all these systems, which includes about 20,000 police
[17:10] Speaker 4: cameras under the Vishwas system and about 60,000 cameras put
[17:14] Speaker 4: up by other government departments, 25 other government departments, which
[17:18] Speaker 4: are all of different quality and make and model and
[17:21] Speaker 4: all of that. and about more than say a lakh
[17:25] Speaker 4: or two of private cameras, which are private owned, but
[17:29] Speaker 4: road facing. So they are trying to integrate all these cameras.
[17:31] Speaker 4: So it will be about 1.8 to 2 lakh cameras
[17:34] Speaker 4: across 1000 kilometers of Gujarat, where they want to integrate
[17:38] Speaker 4: it all into one system. And that is why they've
[17:40] Speaker 4: invited companies from all across the country to come and
[17:43] Speaker 4: see if how feasible it is to do so and
[17:46] Speaker 4: they've announced an award of more than 50 lakh for it. So,
[17:49] Speaker 4: let us see how it pans out. Secondly, DGP N.N. Komar,
[17:53] Speaker 4: who is head of the Vishwas Committee, also told us
[17:56] Speaker 4: that there is also policy planning happening where it's possible
[18:02] Speaker 4: that in the future, the Gujarat government may decide to
[18:05] Speaker 4: set up CCTVs under all departments and under a policy
[18:08] Speaker 4: guided framework where all of the decisions are taken collectively
[18:11] Speaker 4: so that it is easier to integrate the cameras of
[18:14] Speaker 4: different departments. So today while the police has to go
[18:17] Speaker 4: manually to the bus stand and get the footage, manually
[18:20] Speaker 4: to the railway station and get the footage, in the
[18:23] Speaker 4: future that will not be an issue. If these road
[18:25] Speaker 4: facing and entry exit cameras are directly, you know, of
[18:28] Speaker 4: the same design and integrated into the system, those from
[18:32] Speaker 4: various departments and ministries, it'll make the job very easy.
[18:35] Speaker 4: And of course, fewer manners will be wasted in going
[18:38] Speaker 4: manually and getting this stuff, just like it happened in
[18:41] Speaker 4: this case.
[18:42] Speaker 5: And Brandon, another question is that, is installation enough if
[18:46] Speaker 5: the camera doesn't work?
[18:48] Speaker 2: Like in this case itself?
[18:49] Speaker 5: The investigators had to go through 180 cameras. So why couldn't, say,
[18:55] Speaker 5: a software search those feeds automatically? Or for that matter,
[19:00] Speaker 5: the CCTV camera having a 26-year-old wrong timestamp of all
[19:05] Speaker 5: the things.
[19:06] Speaker 2: So how do authorities see these gaps?
[19:10] Speaker 4: No, there's this thing, right? So apart from this integration
[19:12] Speaker 4: of cameras, what the police are also doing is they
[19:15] Speaker 4: have recently just completed doing a survey of all these
[19:18] Speaker 4: privately owned road facing cameras. And the hackathon will also
[19:22] Speaker 4: include a geo mapping phase where companies will also be
[19:26] Speaker 4: asked to help in geo mapping these cameras. So once
[19:29] Speaker 4: the limit of an official camera is reached at the
[19:32] Speaker 4: edge of a town or the edge of a village,
[19:34] Speaker 4: then you automatically are aware where the next camera is
[19:37] Speaker 4: located so you don't have to go and search for
[19:38] Speaker 4: it so if there are five shops or two hotels
[19:42] Speaker 4: or a number of commercial establishments you know exactly where
[19:45] Speaker 4: the next camera is located and where the person is
[19:47] Speaker 4: going to go next so that kind of geo effort
[19:50] Speaker 4: is also underway. So that is also going to be
[19:52] Speaker 4: helpful in the future.
[19:58] Speaker 1: And in the end, we talk about a protest that
[20:01] Speaker 1: erupted in Odisha over the Mines and Minerals Development and
[20:04] Speaker 1: Regulation Amendment Act 2026. The Indian Express's Sujit Bisoy reported
[20:09] Speaker 1: that yesterday, thousands of people gathered outside the Odisha Assembly
[20:13] Speaker 1: and were addressed by Biju Jantadal or BJD President Naveen Patnaik.
[20:18] Speaker 1: When Patnaik reached the dais, the crowd erupted in applause
[20:21] Speaker 1: and slogans of Naveen Patnaik Zindabad. During his address, Patnaik
[20:25] Speaker 1: said that the act would cost a loss worth of
[20:28] Speaker 1: thousands of crores to the state every year... and that
[20:31] Speaker 1: such an important bill was passed in the parliament without
[20:34] Speaker 1: any discussion, while the 20 BJP Lok Sabha MPs from
[20:37] Speaker 1: Odisha remained silent.
[20:39] Speaker 2: During the rally, he also said that.
[20:41] Speaker 1: The people of the state were the rightful owners of
[20:43] Speaker 1: its mines and its land.
[20:45] Speaker 2: In his sharpest offensive yet.
[20:46] Speaker 1: Against the BJP regime in Odisha, Patnaik said that the government,
[20:50] Speaker 1: which is always in denial, does little beyond making speeches.
[20:54] Speaker 1: He added that despite him writing two letters to Chief
[20:56] Speaker 1: Minister Mohan Charanmaji, seeking a special session of the State
[21:00] Speaker 1: Assembly and another to pass a resolution against the new mining.
[21:03] Speaker 2: Law, there was no response.
[21:05] Speaker 1: Reviving his familiar regional pitch against the party in power
[21:09] Speaker 1: at the centre, Patnaik vowed to fight for Odisha till
[21:12] Speaker 1: his last breath. Sujit writes that even as the Odisha
[21:15] Speaker 1: government said that it is yet to assess the impact
[21:18] Speaker 1: of the new mining law on the state, various political
[21:20] Speaker 1: parties said that it would suffer a loss of Rs
[21:23] Speaker 1: 1 lakh crore as arrears and additional annual revenue of
[21:27] Speaker 1: Rs 12,000 crore from the mining sector.
[21:30] Speaker 2: What triggered the protest against the new law is a
[21:33] Speaker 2: new clause.
[21:34] Speaker 1: Which prohibits the mining-bearing states from levying any taxes on
[21:37] Speaker 1: the mining leaseholders, even though the Supreme Court in July
[21:41] Speaker 1: 2024 imparted them to levy taxes and to collect arrears
[21:45] Speaker 1: from April 2005. BJD sources have said that the regional
[21:49] Speaker 1: party will make it an issue of centre versus regional
[21:52] Speaker 1: interest to target.
[21:53] Speaker 2: The BJP, which is in power at the state and
[21:55] Speaker 2: at the centre.
[21:56] Speaker 1: Besides Patnaik, another leader who drew attention at the protest
[22:00] Speaker 1: was Sujata Raut Kartikeyan, who is the wife of former
[22:02] Speaker 1: bureaucrat and ex-CM's close aide, VK Pandeyan. The India Bloc
[22:06] Speaker 1: parties have also called for a massive demonstration against the
[22:09] Speaker 1: new law today. You were listening to Three Things by
[22:16] Speaker 1: the Indian Express. Today's episode was edited and mixed by
[22:20] Speaker 1: Suresh Pawar and produced by Ichha Sharma and me.
[22:23] Speaker 2: Niharika Nanda.
[22:24] Speaker 1: If you like the show, then do subscribe to us
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[22:36] Speaker 1: You can also tweet us at Express Podcast and write
[22:40] Speaker 1: to us at podcasts at indianexpress.com.

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