There were over 5,000 police personnel on duty across the city on Wednesday. But it was a small group of 250, stationed in and around Attukal Bhagavathy Temple, which garnered almost all the attention.
Their uniforms were the first to catch the eye. Dressed in camouflage dungarees, many took them to be part of some commando force. And then, the quiet, efficient way in which they went about their job of controlling the crowd drew more attention. The group was woman police constable (WPC)-recruits, just having completed their training at the Kerala Police Academy, Thrissur, and waiting for their passing-out ceremony later this month.
“It was like a practical session for them, particularly in crowd-control. And they managed it quite well,” City Police Commissioner H. Venkatesh said.
S. Ajeetha Begum, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), said it was the first time that crowd-control inside the temple was completely taken over by women officers, with the new recruits ‘beautifully managing’ it.
“They were very dedicated, and being on duty right from Wednesday morning, came in really handy,” she said. In fact, the manner in which the police managed the crowd in and around the temple came in for praise. “There were no stampedes, no major complaints. Everything went smoothly, which is in fact amazing when there is such a large congregation of people, especially women,” Mr. Venkatesh and Ms. Begum said.
Barricades and ropes were in place in advance to prevent stampedes. Outside the temple, apart from the Commissioner and the DCP, the men who managed the show were Assistant Commissioners and Circle Inspectors, who have been managing the Attukal Pongala festival every year for over a decade now.
