CHENNAI: In view of Deepavali festivities on November 8, Greater Chennai Police have made elaborate security arrangements to ensure the safety and security of the public, who are expected to congregate in large numbers in commercial hubs like T Nagar, Purasawalkam for shopping.
Commissioner A Amalraj has directed the personnel to focus on crowd control, crime prevention, traffic regulation among other duties with strengths drawn from all wings of the city police, Armed Reserve, Tamil Nadu Special Police and Home Guards.
Special security arrangements have been made in T Nagar, Washermenpet, Purasawalkam and Flower Bazaar where people throng to purchase crackers, dresses, police said. A total of 25 temporary watch towers have been set up at the commercial hubs: 10 in T Nagar, 2 in Washermenpet, Kilpauk and Flower Bazaar have 4 each, 2 in Triplicane, and 1 in Adyar. Police personnel with binoculars will be monitoring the crowd on a rotational basis.
A total of 12 temporary Police Control rooms and 37 Temporary help desk have been set up in T Nagar, Washermenpet, Purasawalkam and Flower Bazaar areas, monitoring CCTV camera records, tracking the movement of criminals and arrangements have been made to hand over the missing boys and girls to the appropriate people. Also, police personnel wearing body worn cameras (100) would be monitoring the crowds.
Safety slogans and crime prevention precautionary measures slogans are to be broadcasted through wide LED screens in T Nagar, Washermenpet, Purasawalkam and Flower Bazaar areas and warnings and instructions will be given to the public. In the above shopping hubs, through 66 Public Address Systems, instructions will be given to prevent the occurrence of theft, crimes and not to cause traffic jams, and instructions regarding the methods of protecting cell phones, money, gold jewelry and belongings will also be issued frequently.
Seven Drone cameras will be used for monitoring crowded areas to prevent crime incidents, an official release stated To thwart criminal activities, cops are deployed on rotation basis and an exclusive WhatsApp group has been created to share information to prevent and detect criminal activities.
Four-wheeler and two-wheeler patrolling have been increased for better monitoring. Traffic patrol vehicles (Traffic Marshall) have been pressed into services in T Nagar, Purasawalkam, Washermenpet and Flower Bazaar areas to regulate traffic. Baggages of the public will be vetted randomly through Mobile X-Ray Baggage Scanner vehicle at commercial establishments, shopping malls and at places where people throng in large numbers.
Women are urged to wear scarves to prevent chain snatching. Mufti policemen and women will be deployed in crowded areas to monitor the criminals and to prevent crimes.
As a precautionary measure, 108 Ambulance with medical teams, and Fire Engines with fire fighters are in place to attend to any untoward incident, if any. Adequate safety measures have been taken in and around cracker shops to prevent any untoward incident.