VoteUpIndia

The delay in completion of works at Commonwealth Games (CWG) venues has left security agencies with only about a week to run Games security drills. They had originally planned to conduct comprehensive anti-sabotage checks and seal the CWG venues 45 days before the event.

Union home minister P. Chidambaram was informed at a high-level security review meeting on Wednesday that security agencies, including Delhi Police and the National Security Guard (NSG), will be able to take over the CWG venues only by September 7.

And between September 7 and 15 they will have to put in place a four-tier security apparatus with army backup.

The agencies will have to erect metal barriers, tyre busters, CCTVs and metal detectors and conduct anti-sabotage drills to make the security structure similar to that in Parliament.

“Given that foreign and domestic athletes will arrive by September 14, we have barely a week to run security checks at the CWG Village and the training venues,” an official said.

“We had planned to take over these venues on August 1. The deadline was then extended to September 1. But even now some training venues are under construction. We hope we will get the venues by September 7,” he added.

Chidambaram, too, expressed hope that all security arrangements at the Games venues will be in place by September 15.

“We will review security arrangements again after September 15,” the home minister said, while admitting that there was a delay in implementation of these arrangements. He, however, said the security agencies were not responsible for the delay.

An official said one of the biggest tasks before the security agencies will be to work out the security drill for athletes travelling by road from the airport to the CWG village and between the village and the Games and training venues.

Top officials, including home secretary G. K. Pillai, Delhi Police commissioner Y. S. Dadwal and senior Intelligence and NSG officers attended the review meeting and briefed the home minister about the security measures to be adopted for the sporting event.

Dadwal also reportedly gave a presentation on the deployment of security personnel, traffic management and a contingency plan in case of an emergency.

According to the plan, athletes, officials and guests will be allowed to visit the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium only by bus, and no VIP – other than a head of state – will be allowed to take cars in.

Helicopters carrying commando snipers will keep an eye on the convoy of vehicles carrying athletes. This is aimed to prevent incidents such as the attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore in March 2009.

Further, to ensure the security of athletes, each of the 574 vehicles to be used to transport them will undergo mandatory anti-sabotage clearance every morning before athletes board them. Mock security drills will be conducted and bar codes will be issued to authorised cars and buses, a source said.

[Story Source] [Contest win Rs 1000-100,000 now]

This post was submitted by Harshit Agrawal.

Thanks to indiatoday.intoday.in