With two Mumbai hotels — Taj, Oberoi and Trident under siege —the city police have reviewed its security arrangement in the city and has asked owners of hotels in the city to install X-ray machines. SSP R K Jaiswal called in an emergency meeting of leading hotel owners has asked them to “install X-ray machines to check luggage of visitors”. “A person carrying a bagful of explosives, if not checked, can simply walk into the hotel, put his luggage in a room and hold the entire hotel hostage just as it is happening in Mumbai,” he said To this Congress MLA Jassi Khangura, the owner of Hotel Park Plaza, said, “As X-ray machines are not available off the shelf, I have instructed my staff to check the luggage of all the people who visit the hotel. I am afraid that many people coming to our hotel might not like this idea but then they will have to bear it with us till the time we get the machine.” The SSP added, “Apart from the X-ray machines, I have asked the hotel owners to spruce up checking in parking lots. The mirror that is used to check the under side of the cars, the anti-sabotage trolley is a must. I have also asked them to install close circuit televisions in the parking lots as well.” The SSP has also asked the hotel owners to report suspicious movements of any person. “In the present times, no place is any longer safe. Be it shopping complexes, marriage palaces, malls, hotels —everyone is on terror radar. Safety saves.”
