Shifting of verdict date from Sept 24 to yesterday allowed cops fatigued by Ganapati immersion duty a breather

Deferment of verdict helped police: top cop

Shifting of verdict date from Sept 24 to yesterday allowed cops fatigued by Ganapati immersion duty a breather

IT seems the deferment of the Ayodhya verdict till yesterday worked in favour of the police in the city. No untoward incident was reported in the city, which saw heavy police presence.The verdict was earlier slated to be announced on September 24, just a day after the Ganapati immersion procession, which would have meant tired policemen who had been on duty for 48 hours having to remain on their toes one more day.

Unlike the day of Bharat bandh, when 84 buses were damaged by price-rise protesters, no such actions were repeated yesterday.People did not venture out much in the city, and there were policemen, Home Guards and traffic policemen on almost every road and corner. There was heavy bandobast at all sensitive points in the city.Besides this, preventive action against 300 suspected mischief-makers a night prior to the verdict ensured peace in the city.

Two-point strategy
Borwankar said she applied a two-point strategy to ensure peace. "Police station officers were in constant touch with the peacemakers, who are sought after by the citizens in the society. Apart from that we had gone in heavily for preventive action," said Borwankar. "A night before the verdict, we took action against 307 people, which included preventive detention."

She added preventive action was taken against 814 people till September 28.She said a total of 516 meetings were conducted between policemen and peace committee members. Of these, 194 meetings were held at police station level and 286 were held at chowky level.

"A meeting was held on Wednesday evening in which officers in charge of police stations expressed confidence and said they felt they were on top of the situation," said Borwankar.

She added that the appeal to people to share information with the police had succeeded as two important tip-offs were received by the Special Branch, helping the police maintain peace and control in the city.

Lessons from Bharat bandh

>>Commissioner of Police Meeran Chadha Borwankar said the police took the lessons learnt from the Bharat bandh seriously and made sure no untoward incident occurred on the day of the Ayodhya verdict.
>>On the day of the strike, 84 PMPML buses were stoned and some buses were even torched. To ensure a repeat did not take place, policemen were extra vigilant at each chowk. PMPML PRO D A Pardeshi said, "There was low turnout of commuters; compared to the other days it was 60 per cent less.
>>As the roads were deserted, no miscreant dared to damage buses." Pardeshi said because of excellent coordination by the police, not a single bus was damaged.