Even though the State government has scaled down Dasara festivities this year in view of drought, the Mysuru city police are anticipating as many visitors as last year.
City Police Commissioner B. Dayanand said they were expecting a large number of tourists during the holidays, and the long weekend coinciding with Vijayadashami, the day on which the Jamboo Savari is held.
“We have made security arrangements keeping in mind the number of people who visited the city last year. We cannot take a chance by scaling down the security arrangements,” the Commissioner told presspersons on Thursday.
However, he said the police did not have a record of the number of people who visited Mysuru last year.
Seating arrangements have been made for 23,000 people, including 6,200 ticket holders, on the palace premises to watch the procession on October 23. Entry into the palace is either by pass or ticket.
A large crowd is expected to gather along the 5-km-long route from the palace to Bannimantap.
Though big-ticket events like Yuva Dasara, food festival, adventure sports etc. have been cancelled, regular programmes like flower show, cultural events at the palace, procession and the torchlight parade are expected to draw crowds.
Security
While more than 1,400 additional security personnel are on duty in the first phase, which began on October 12 and ends on October 20, 5,800 additional security personnel, including 11 officials of the rank of Superintendent of Police and 34 officials of the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police, will be deployed in the second phase from October 20 to 23.
Besides, one company of Rapid Action Force, 40 commandoes from the Mysuru City police, a team of 25 to 30 commandoes from Internal Security Division for immediate back-up support, 40 platoons of reserve police force, 18 squads of anti-sabotage check teams and 15 members of the mounted police team will be deployed on duty in the second phase.
The number of women police constables, which will be 66 in the first phase, will go up to 281 in the second phase.
