BHUBANESWAR: The Commissionerate Police has made massive security arrangements to ensure a peaceful and incident-free Durga Puja in the Twin City of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
It has deployed over 100 platoons of police force and over 800 officers to oversee the festivities. In the state capital, special measures like deployment of one company of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), one unit of special tactical unit (STU) and a bomb detection and disposal squad have also been put in place to handle any emergency situation.
Addressing the mediapersons on Monday, police commissioner S Dev Datta Singh said, “In Bhubaneswar, a total of 193 puja pandals have been set up. Out of the total pandals in the capital, 24 have adorned their deities with gold and silver crowns. To maintain law and order in the city, 61 platoons of police force including 20 platoons of home guards have been deployed.”
Singh said drones will be deployed to assess the realtime crowd flow and accordingly, the information will be shared with the citizens through the radio stations.
“As huge rush is anticipated during Puja, vehicular movement may get slow but all efforts will be made to ensure there are no traffic snarls and adequate police personnel have been deployed for the purpose. Visitors will also be asked to park their vehicles at the designated parking places,” he added.
The citizens are already having a tough time at many busy stretches in the city due to bumper-to-bumper traffic, especially during the evening. In recent years, it has been noticed that citizens are opting to visit the pandals in the night to beat the traffic, but this has led to rush at the pandals till the wee hours.
Singh said they are monitoring the situation and if required, police arrangements will be made till late hours. In neighbouring Cuttack, 59 platoons of police force, three companies of CAPF, one unit of STU and a bomb detection and disposal squad have been mobilised.
There are a total of 160 pandals in the Silver City. Police personnel in plainclothes are also stationed in the cities to check crimes against women and incidents of snatching. All the pandals have been directed to install CCTV cameras to keep a close eye on anti-social elements, he said.