Police in no mood to roll back security, to focus on surveillance

Delhi Police is also actively coordinating with Haryana Police and will be monitoring the situation closely

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police could now heave a sigh of relief after Jat leaders who had planned a massive blockade in Delhi scheduled for Monday called off the agitation on Sunday evening.

However, the police will not roll back the massive three tier security layer any soon, and have claimed that the security cover will now be used for facilitation and surveillance to deter any untoward incident.

Senior police officials from the force have been closely monitoring the situation, Later in the day, when the announcement from the All India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti came in, they conducted a threat assessment analysis after which they made the move.

“The protest planned by the All India Jat Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti in the national Capital has been postponed. The security arrangements at the borders and New Delhi area will remain there till next orders. It will be lifted only after monitoring the situation,” said Deependra Pathak, Special Commissioner of police.

However, there will be no scaling down in the number of police personnel deployed, as 40, 000 police personnel in coordination with nearly 3, 600 paramilitary personnel have been roped in to augment the police ranks.

In their back to back high level security meetings, a complete analysis of the sensitive border areas were undertaken and 37 border points and 20 sensitive areas were identified.

The sensitive border areas of South West Delhi, Shahdra and Outer Districts have seen several barricades being erected and multiple police teams have started to intensify the vehicle checking drive.

“We will be closely monitoring the situation at the border areas. The earlier restrictions had been rescinded considering the inconvenience to the commuters. Further, we also looked at the plight of the students appearing for the UPSC, CBSE and various college exams and had eased several restrictions.

“The police will now act as a facilitator and there will be a complete oversight from the police and (we) will monitor the situation to deter any untoward incident,” said Pathak.

Delhi Police were also coordinating with the Railway police to keep a track of Jats who may use trains to stream into the Capital.

The restrictions on the local trains, Metro and buses have been withdrawn after they received the green light from Delhi Police.

“We have made security arrangements in three tiers right from borders to the New Delhi area as we all know the agitation has been called. So, in view of that, certain restrictions on local train and Metro have been eased,” he added.

Delhi Police is also actively coordinating with Haryana Police and will be monitoring the situation closely.

“The security situation in the border areas will be monitored on a minute-to-minute basis,” Pathak added.