The national capital has only five bomb disposal squads to oversee over 4,000 schools in the event of a bomb threat, a report filed in the Delhi High Court has stated. The report has been filed in a 2023 petition moved by advocate Arpit Bhargava, seeking directions to the Delhi government and the police to prepare a detailed action plan to deal with bomb threats in city schools and implement it in a time-bound manner. In its latest status report filed Thursday, the Delhi Police has stated that there are five Bomb Disposal Squads (BDS), within the jurisdiction of which lie 4,634 schools situated in different ranges in the city. The Central range of the police covers 1,764 schools, the Southern range 1,762 schools, the Eastern range 1,032 schools, and New Delhi range 76 schools. The report also stated the details of the nodal officers, which have been deployed with the BDS. For instance, in the Central range, the base station is Police Station Daryaganj and the nodal officer is DCP, Central district. For the Southern range, the base station is police station RK Puram and the nodal officer is DCP South district. The report further stated that there are “18 Bomb Detection Teams (BDT), one each stationed in all 15 districts while one each is dedicated for IGI Airport, Railway Unit and Metro Unit”. The reporting authority for the BDT is the district DCP or unit DCP concerned, the report added. Around 120 mock drills have been conducted between January 1 to May 6 in schools located in the city's 10 districts, the report added. The status report has been filed in response to the HC's May 6 direction calling for details of the number of schools in each zones, the nodal authority in each zone responsible for taking action in case of threat, the team taking action in such cases, and the number of mock drills undertaken to ensure children are evacuated from the schools without any panic. Besides, the court had sought details of the action taken to ensure least dependence on the parents, who work at different places, for evacuating the children from schools since “it is primarily the duty of the schools and the authorities to evacuate the children”. The HC had called for the details in the previous hearing after taking note of “bomb threats” received by over 100 schools in Delhi earlier this month. The matter is next listed on May 20. Last July, police had issued its “guidelines to deal with bomb threats at school”.
