Page 36 - 15DEC2019E-5

GURU NANAK DEV’S 550TH BIRTH CELEBRATIONS

Punjab police set benchmark

with many organisational firsts

Drawing an elaborate, hassles-free security and traffic plan for the place that witnesses daily footfall of
about one lakh devotees at Sultanpur Lodhi is a herculean task, reports raju william
he smooth and peaceful con- There were many firsts achieved by smooth affair, no traffic congestion at all,
duct of the recent fortnight- his team thanks to the latest technology which was the major concern yet I must
long 550th birth anniversary that ensured no security letup and traf- say some apprehensions were there
celebrations of Guru Nanak fic congestion during extended period initially because the residents had never
T Dev, the first Guru of the Sikhs, of celebrations concentrated in a small seen any religious or other festivities of
at the heritage town Sultanpur Lodhi in area of the town having no space for this scale here. Though the local grain
Kapurthala district of Punjab, which wit- hosting them. The rush of devotees market was ordered to be closed and no
nessed millions of devotees arriving here actually started from October 26 due to commercial vehicles including tractor-
to pay obeisance from across the globe, Diwali holiday. trolleys carrying Paddy were allowed
was the first event of its kind held over an According to local residents, there into the town to ease traffic yet for us
extended period in Punjab. were apprehensions normally associ- the sense of devotion prevailed over the
In absence of any organizational data ated with such large influx of devotees financial interests for a fortnight.”
legacy and anticipated magnitude of from outside. Though the state govern- The location of Sultanpur Lodhi posed
the event made it all the more challeng- ment had erected a tent city meant to a geographical challenge to the plan-
ing for the state police given the intense accommodate about 45,000 visitors, yet ners. It is located next to confluence of
public and media scrutiny that the event the accommodation challenge was easi- rivers Beas and Sutlej. Besides the lim-
came under. It had long before been in- er to deal with since the devotees coming ited number of approaches to it through
ternationally publicized since Pakistan and returning the same day after paying six bridges across of both rivers from
initiated the move to open Kartarpur obeisance. Majha and Malwa regions which com-
Corridor, a long cherished dream of the As a local businessman Vivek Bhush- prise major area of the state, the town is
global Sikh community. an Pasricha put it, “Overall it was a hemmed in by rivulet Kali Bein on one
Punjab being a border state and the
celebrations spilling over on both sides
of the international border it shares MAJOR FEATURES OF TECHNOLOGY
with Pakistan, it was a herculean task of
drawing an elaborate, hassles-free secu- INTERVENTIONS
rity and traffic plan for this small host-
ing town of 16,000 population which ◆ Video Surveillance-CCTV, communication
witnessed a daily footfall of about lakh Drones with Artificial ◆ Emergency response
devotees. Intelligence-based video call centre
“To manage this in a small area was
a challenge that took us an year to plan. analytics for face-fire and ◆ Integrated monitoring
Our major handicap was absence of any direction detection platform with live dashboards
legacy data to draw from. We went about ◆ GPS-based automatic location ◆ Integrated command and
planning very thoroughly, conducted tracking for duty staff and control centre (ICCC)
surveys, studied anticipated load bearing vehicles ◆ OFC-based MPLS connectivity
capacity. I and my team visited Kumbh ◆ Automatic number plate of sector control rooms
Mela at Prayagraj this February-March recognition system with ICCC
and Patna Sahib in Bihar,” shared overall
incharge Naunihal Singh, an IPS officer ◆ Sector-wise separate ◆ Quick reaction teams (NDRF/
1997-batch, presently posted as Inspector channels for wireless SDRF, rapid rural response
General of Police (IGP), Jalandhar Range.

36