From Our Correspondent
AGARTALA: With barely 48 hours to go for the biggest festival of Tripura- Durga puja, the state police have geared up to ensure peaceful celebrations.
In capital town itself, around two thousand police and TSR personnel including a number of policemen in plain cloths will be deployed in eight sectors to maintain law and order, regulate traffic and ensure free movement of public.
There will be a total of 22 police assistance booths and 4 traffic assistance booths to render assistance to the people. At a number of places, watch towers with CCTVs will be installed to monitor the movement of the crowd, said a senior police officer here on Friday. Vehicular mobiles will be in place to conduct vehicle checking and public audio system will be made available at watch towers to communicate message to the crowd.
In addition sufficient number of volunteers with proper badge and identity cards will be deployed near the puja pandals to conduct smooth passage of the crowd. Drop gates are being installed at important roads to prevent entry of vehicles in crowded areas during peak hours.
This year, “Durga Puja” will be celebrated at 2,151 places in the state including 351 at Agartala and its outskirts.
Two Dog Squads which have already been started working, will continue till the festival is over, said a senior police officer here on Friday. Police have already started anti-sabotage drill as part of confidence building measures. This year, the number of devotees will be more than that of last year. Keeping in mind of the fact, deployment of security personnel will be enhanced.
Around 2000 additional security personnel will be deployed in and around the capital town which is going to host over 500 community pujas. Chief Minister Manik Sarkar had already meeting with SPs of eight districts were clear instruction was passed to take all possible steps for incident free puja celebrations. As the election is doing the round, the government is in no mood to take any chance when it comes to security during the biggest festival.