The attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi has sent alarm bells ringing back home as shopping centres of the city have pulled up their socks and tightened security ahead of the festive season. Lalbazar officials said they were not anticipating trouble but had asked all mall authorities to seal any possible loopholes to avoid any untoward incident. All the mall authorities have been alerted. There will be extra mock drills before the pujas, said P K Ghosh,joint commissioner (crime). Shopping centres have pepped up their security system with both added manpower and equipment. Pradipta Mukherjee,security-in-charge of Avani Riverside Mall,said there had been at least five per cent increase in the number of security personnel. The number of persons has been increased,especially on weekends. The cameras have been updated and as opposed to the earlier practice of just recording,the CCTV cameras are constantly monitored now, he said. He also said the security steps have been taken as precaution and not to instill a sense of panic among visitors. The dustbins are checked and cleared every half an hour and so are the fire exits. These appear normal cleanliness moves to visitors, he said and added that visitors and vendors cars were thoroughly checked,including the dashboard. We dont depend only on handheld metal detectors but also frisk the visitors manually,which is a far more effective process, he said. Security at City Centre too has been beefed up. Added manpower has been ensured and sniffer dogs have been kept at standby for extra vigilance. We will soon have an internal meeting for further steps to be taken to deal with the festive crowd, said B K Singh,security-in-charge of the sprawling shopping centre.
