Police gear up to keep city safe during fortnight of festivities

The fortnight beginning September 10 will be a security nightmare for the government and a huge challenge for the police force. It will begin with the journey of Queen’s Baton for Commonwealth Games through the city on September 10 and 11. This will coincide with the Ganpati festival on September 11 and Eid coinciding on the same day.

The Mount Mary fair will also take place in the same week. But what concerns the government the most is the Supreme Court’s judgement on the Babri Mosque dispute, expected to be announced on September 17 at Allahabad.

“We have requested people not to react in any way after the verdict comes out irrespective of which community they belong to. There will be about 2 per cent people who will react to the judgment, but we do not want to see others participating with them,” said Mumbai suburban Guardian Minister Naseem Khan, after conducting a meeting with the suburban ‘communal harmony and unity’ committee at Bandra on Saturday.

He has assured that the state police force will be present in full strength and more so at communally sensitive areas.

The baton, Khan said will be travelling on both the western and eastern express highways and might coincide with the Ganpati idols coming in on both the days.

“We will have special security set up at such areas to disperse crowds,” Khan said.

Senior officials of the home department said that adequate measures will be taken to make sure that there is tight
security and there is no communal tension in the state.

Meanwhile, Khan has asked the BMC to fill up all the potholes in suburban Mumbai on a warfooting basis.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Aseem Gupta who was present at the meeting said that the continuous rains and absence of dry spells is preventing the civic body from filling up the potholes.

“It takes a 24-hour dry spell to fill in the potholes. Right now we are doing it in between of the five to six hour dry spell we are getting, but that is not too helpful. By the end of the week if there is no dry spell we will fill in the potholes with paver blocks,” Gupta said.