At a time when surveillance technology is evolving fast across the globe, it is hard to think of a conventional security mechanism where thousands of people queue up for entering a popular festival spot. Interestingly, the State School Arts Festival in Kozhikode is proving to be a testing ground for such a challenging experiment, where four policemen of the bomb squad manage the whole show.
The squad, comprising a senior civil police officer and three civil police officers, carries out the big task in two shifts and manage it with the support of three Door Frame Metal Detectors (DFMD) installed at the main entrance.
Even though the DFMDs produce a beep sound constantly during the entry of people, it hardly annoys these watchful eyes as they are looking out only for louder or longer alerts. The team members say that they had already come across 50 such cases, where the persons were thoroughly checked.
“In most cases, we found only some metal tools that were carried by labourers who came to the festival venue after work. But, we will not be able to relax the checking in the wake of such a positive signal,” said M.M. Bhaskaran, senior civil police officer in the bomb squad.
“When people enter the door frame, our eyes will always be on the person and it is really a painstaking effort to ensure flawless security,” he said.
Though official sources say that the seating capacity of the main venue at the Malabar Christian College ground is about 7,000, the actual number of people who come to the venue is far beyond this. Taking into account the additional security requirements, the police have already deployed separate squads here in mufti, equipped with advanced checking devices.
