Security beefed up for city garbas

VADODARA, Oct 14: The large number of garbas organised this year seem to be posing immense security problems in the city. But the police ...

VADODARA, Oct 14: The large number of garbas organised this year seem to be posing immense security problems in the city. But the police are gearing up anyway.

For more than 1200 Home Guards and four companies of State Reserve Police (SRP), besides police personnel from all the police stations, have been deployed in the city for ensuring that the festivities pass off peacefully. According to sources, 464 garbas, big and small, are being held in various parts of the city.

Even recruits from the police headquarters have been put on duty, sources said, adding that two companies of SRP had been deployed in sensitive areas of the walled city.

While policemen were being deployed only outside the venue, the organisers had arranged private security to maintain law and order inside the ground.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Siddharth Khatri said that the entire city had been divided into three sectors, each headed by a police inspector, for supervising the traffic which had increased due to the celebrations.

Since parking space available with the organisers were not sufficient, participants and viewers had been allowed to park their vehicles in a single row on the roadside, Khatri said. Three cranes have also been put in service till 2 am for towing away the vehicles blocking the road.

Khatri said he was also considering traffic diversion in some parts of the city where there was heavy flow of traffic during the festival — particularly on Rajmahal Road — taking into consideration an assault on a home guard personnel in the J P road area, after he instructed two motorcyclists to park vehicles in the specified area.

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Meanwhile, property offences, especially cases of house-breaks, have witnessed a sharp increase ever since the festival began. Three cases of house-breaks were reported on Wednesday night alone, while three similar cases, including theft of cash and valuables worth Rs 2 lakh from a single house, were reported the night before.

According to highly placed police officials, the beefing of security could be attributed to the sudden rise in burglary cases, particularly, on the city outskirts.

Giving details, the police said goods worth Rs 7.21 lakh was stolen from the godown of a chemical factory near Ranoli Railway Station, while equipment worth Rs 13,000 were stolen from a STD/PCO booth near Kavi Vishwanath temple in Kunj Plaza Society and goods worth Rs 23,000 were stolen from a house behind Madhur School in Yogeshwar Society.