While the district administration is gearing up to celebrate a car festival in second Srikhetra at Baripada in Mayurbhanj, the district police has decided to deploy drone cameras as a fourth vigil besides CCTV Cameras to keep a close watch for the thirty days of the event as part of security measures.
While reviewing security arrangements for the events, SP Awinash Kumar said that the drone camera will be deployed on the grand road. People will be warned not to deploy their personal drone camera on the grand road during the car festival. If anyone will be violate, then necessary action will initiate against the following persons. He informed that for the last few years, the district police had used CCTV cameras in some major places as security measures. But the drone will be deployedfor the first time. Trained police officers will be operating the device. It will help the police to take immediate security measures and to easily find out the place of occurence of any incident.
Elaborate police arrangements will be made in the town for traffic control and police personnel will be deployed in and outside the cordons when the chariots of trinity will be pulled, he added that women police will engage in civil dress during pulling the chariot of Devi Subhadra. ‘I have not been told the exact number of police personnel deployed in the car festival. It will be confirmed after knowing the strength of police forces in the district. Necessary steps will be taken if more police forces are needed,” said the SP.
The attendees of the review meeting included ASPs Jayram Sathpathy and Baripada SDPO Krushnaprasad Patniak Abhimanyu Nayak,DSP (DIB) Bamdev Singh, Baripada town police station IIC Ashok Kumar Nayak and officers of Endowment departmen. The district police are supervising the arranbgements to ensure that the festival is conducted peacefully and in a hassle-free manner.
Last year a video showing some youths molesting a few girls who were pulling the chariot of Devi Subhadra at Grand Road had gone viral in social media, despite security arrangements made by the police authority.
Later police arrested the culprits doing such shameful activity. The car festival here draws huge crowds.