2 proposals await action

The Home Department has put on the back burner two vital security proposals. The proposal for an expert committee for security in public transport has been pending for six months...

The Home Department has put on the back burner two vital security proposals. The proposal for an expert committee for security in public transport has been pending for six months; the Merani Committee report on safety in multiplexes has been awaiting action for 14 months.

The transport panel was planned after the 2006 serial train blasts,which claimed 180 lives,and the 2003 blasts in BEST buses at Mulund and Ghatkopar. The Urban Development Department had recommended that the Home Department set up the committee that would prepare rules for regulating access to bus stops and railway,Metro and monorail stations. It would also recommend surveillance systems and infrastructural features like police chowkys and illumination.

A Home official denied any such proposal is pending. Security in trains will come under the railways jurisdiction. We are also in the process installing CCTV cameras in all buses, said the official.

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The report on multiplex safety lists out life-threatening violations in the 33 multiplexes in Mumbai,suggests structural remedies for multiplexes and recommends rules to be enforced by the municipal corporation,and the fire and police departments. The report was placed in August last year.

We had formed a sub-committee to ensure CCTV cameras are installed at all multiplexes and the Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) is working on it with the IT secretary, said Chandra Iyengar,additional chief secretary (Home).

However the department is yet to work out an amendment to the Bombay Cinema Rules without which the Merani Committee report cannot be enforced.

We will soon put up a note before the Cabinet on the committee report. All recommendations,including one that states the police should stop issuing permission to multiplexes flouting norms,can be enforced after cabinet approval, said Medha Gadgil,principal secretary,Home (Appeals & Security).

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