Puri: At least 155 platoons of police forces will be pressed into service along with three units of Anti-Terrorist Squads (ATS), two companies of Rapid Action Force (RAF), and three companies of Swift Action Force (SAF) for the ensuing annual Rath Yatra in Puri, informed Director General of Police (DGP) Dr Rajendra Prasad Sharma.
This year Rath Yatra falls on July 4. Security arrangements will be in place till Niladri Bije on July 15.
Sharma, who chaired the second preparatory meeting with top officials at Puri district police headquarters said, “Elaborate security arrangements will be in place for the forthcoming Rath Yatra. Three units of ATS, two companies from RAF and three from SAF will be deployed in Puri during grand festival of Lord Jagannath and His siblings. Besides, 155 platoon forces will be pressed into service for the same.”
Sharma said the CCTV cameras that were damaged due to the cyclone Fani, will be repaired or replaced to keep a watch on anti-social activities during the fete.
The DGP also allotted exclusive responsibility to senior IPS officers to make the annual car festival incident-free.
While ADG (Law and order) Sanjeeb Panda will to take charge of law and order SAP IG Amitabh Thakur will look after the traffic regulation. IG (Central Range) Soumendra Priyadarshi will be the security in-charge of inside the 12th century shrine premises during the festival.
Railways and Coastal ADG Pranabindu Acharya will supervise the arrangements of railways police while IG (Intelligence) RK Sharma will supervise security and special branch arrangements and IG (Headquarters) Asit Panigarhi will monitor crowd control management and IG (Crime Branch CID) will monitor crowd near the cordons of the three chariots.
DGP RP Sharma today assigned special responsibility to senior officials for security during upcoming Rath Yatra in Puri.
