Chidambaram takes stock of security arrangements for Games

Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram dropped in at the Delhi Police headquarters here on Tuesday to take stock of the security arrangements for the Commonwealth Games scheduled to kick off on October 3.

During the two-hour-long meeting attended by Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal and the venue commanders, it is learnt that the Home Minister sought from them information about the day's developments on the security front at all the Games-related venues. Mr. Chidambaram also directed the officers concerned to keep him abreast with issues that still remain unresolved.

Earlier on Tuesday morning, the Police Commissioner had attended a meeting chaired by the Union Home Minister to review the situation. “Mr. Chidambaram has been closely monitoring the developments on the ground. He has been holding at least two meetings every day to take stock of various security-related aspects of the Games,” said an official.

Among the crucial problems still being faced by the police is the uploading of data on accredited persons and radio-frequency identification (allotted to the authorised vehicles) onto the central server for the electronic identity authentication of all those entering the secured premises. The police have been verifying the cards manually so far.

According to sources, it is learnt that records of thousands of accreditations have been forwarded by the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee to the Electronics Corporation of India since Monday to be uploaded. However, a large part of the furnished data has been found to be incomplete in many aspects and even improperly presented, defeating the purpose. For instance, in several cases exact names of the accredited persons had not been given. “Since the identity cards would be verified electronically through scanners, essential particulars of the cards must match with the relevant data stored in the system. Any discrepancy would lead to rejection of the cards, causing inconvenience to the card holders,” said a source.

The issue was taken up on Monday during a meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai that was attended by officials of the Department of Telecommunications, ECIL and the Delhi Police.

However, till Tuesday evening the issue was yet to be resolved completely to the satisfaction of the Union Home Minister . A police team was reportedly sent to the Organising Committee office at Jantar Mantar to collect the data late on Tuesday evening.

Meanwhile, over 60,000 nanotechnology-based non-cloneable I-cards have so far been distributed among Delhi Police officers and personnel.