Stung by stirs, TN takes tech route to track crowd formation

Making a host of announcements on Wednesday, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami informed the Assembly about the creation of predictive engine for crowd formation and movement at a cost of Rs 1.32 crore with the help of Indian Institute of Information Technology.

The Tamil Nadu government has decided to set up the software to aid the Intelligence Wing, especially to prevent riots at public gatherings. The software will aid the Intelligence Wing in monitoring crowd formation and possible deterioration in law and order situation.

The State police had faced severe law and order problem during the Jallikattu protest in the Pongal season in January 2017 on the Marina. In Thoothukudi last month, the police had failed to gauge the number of people about to gather for the anti-Sterlite protest and this eventually led to police firing in which 13 people were killed. In both the incidents, police had failed to gauge the number of people who would gather and this also went on to become major embarrassments for the government. 

These two incidents seem to have caused the government and police department to come up with an idea of using technology to aid and value add to the intelligence input.

It is estimated that the initial non-recurring expense for the software will be around Rs 76 lakh while every year recurring expense will be Rs 56 lakh, the Chief Minister said on Wednesday.