Ahead of Republic Day, Delhi Police held a security review meeting on Saturday to take stock of the situation and arrangements during the parade.
There will be a random check of identity cards of people visiting New Delhi on January 26.
Delhi Police Commissioner S.N. Shrivastava held the meeting and instructed all policemen to be vigilant on Republic Day, while farmers are protesting at the borders.
There will be a multilayer, ground-to-air security cover with thousands of armed personnel keeping a tight vigil on it, including the celebration venue, Rajpath.
A senior police officer said that entry for the Republic Day will strictly be through invitation card/ticket only.
The Ministry of Defence has conveyed that in view of the COVID-19 scenario, only 25,000 spectators are being invited for the ceremony on January 26. No standing spectators will be allowed. Children aged only above 15 will be allowed to attend the ceremony.
“Since all spectators are being invited through invitation cards, no uninvited spectators will be allowed to enter Rajpath seating area during the Republic Day parade. Kindly pass this information as much as possible so that the public is not harassed unnecessarily,” said the officer.
“We have inputs that some terrorist organisations may carry out unwanted activities on January 26. Keeping this in mind, we have taken a few steps, including putting up of posters of wanted terrorists. We have beefed up security in sensitive areas, including market places. We request people coming for the parade to carry ID cards,” said Siddharth Jain, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Connaught Place).
A senior police officer said that policemen have been briefed to be vigilant and keep watch on anti-social elements.
There were intelligence inputs that protesters might attempt to disrupt the parade this year. The intelligence wing is also keeping a watch on protests going on in the city. There will be more than 40,000 security personnel in New Delhi area during the parade.
Drones, CCTV cameras
“We have deployed drones and hundreds of CCTV cameras and facial recognition devices on the ground to keep watch on any suspicious activity in 8-km circle of Rajpath,” said the officer.
