Delhi police buckles up for Diwali security

Even though the Indo-Africa summit concluded on Friday, leaving the Delhi police exhausted due to elaborate arrangements, there seems to be no respite in sight for the cops with the festive season now setting in. All district DCPs have been asked by the top brass to focus all their resources in ensuring a peaceful Diwali, which is just about a week away. A senior Delhi police officer, on condition of anonymity, said: “There is no time to rest as far as the police is concerned. With Diwali just around the corner, we have started meetings of supervisory officials like ACPs and SHOs to chalk out a plan,” adding, “all SHOs have been directed to depute extra personnel at busy places in their jurisdictions like markets, railway stations, malls and so on.” The official added that security drills would be conducted to check the response preparedness of the officials as well. Besides, meetings with members of Residents Welfare Association (RWAs), market associations and other stakeholders are being held on routine basis. “We are briefing shopkeepers and the market staff on potential security threats and have asked them to be vigilant,” said the senior police officer, adding, “parking attendants are also being lectured about possible threats and are being told about their response in case they see any untoward activity in their vicinity.”

The police sources said that anti-terrorism unit of the Delhi police, special cell, has also been roped in. “We are having meetings with them on a routine basis and have asked them to share intelligence threat inputs with us so that precautionary measures can be taken,” said the police sources.

Apart from this, the senior officers added that traffic police officials are also being briefed to remain present on the ground. “One cannot stop traffic jams, especially when hundreds of people commute to visit their relatives. But what we can try and do is minimise the traffic snarls,” said a police officer.