Plan for 'mega city policing' put on fast track

 

28 Jul 2008, 0110 hrs IST, Vishwa Mohan,TNN

NEW DELHI: Back-to-back terror attacks on Bangalore and Ahmedabad in the past two days has injected a sense of urgency in the government's plan to roll out its 'Mega City Policing' guidelines. The idea - which centres around exclusive city-specific policing plan with a separate budget - is aimed at providing helicopters, sophisticated gadgets and aerial surveillance equipment to police in seven big cities. The plan had a limited launch in 2005 and the identified cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Delhi - were given some money to modernise their police forces. Five of these cities - Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Ahmedabad - witnessed big terror attacks in the past couple of years. At a high-level meeting chaired by home minister Shivraj Patil on Sunday, it was decided to finalise the modalities of the plan at the earliest. Patil is learnt to have asked home secretary Madhukar Gupta to call a meeting of the committee finalizing the policing plan after consulting the states. Currently, the plan is being implemented with piecemeal allocation of funds to different cities for modernization. "Once the modalities are finalised, these seven cities will have a separate exclusive plan and budegetary allocation for policing. Besides improving the standard of day-to-day policing, the plan will also help these cities strengthen their intelligence gathering capabilities," a senior home ministry official said. The plan will be finalised keeping in mind specific characteristics of the seven cities. "The anonymity afforded by lifestyles of mega-cities and the ease with which illegal immigrants can mingle with the local population has to be plugged by taking appropriate steps to contain their potential for mischief and unlawful activities. This needs special plans for each big city that has been facing terror threats," the official said. After the plan is implemented in the seven mega cities, Jaipur, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Kanpur will also be brought within its ambit.