Nashik, September 26, 2013: The stretch between Sandeep Hotel and Gadkari Chowk will be kept under surveillance with the help of close circuit television cameras (CCTV) during the upcoming Navaratra festival at the Kalika temple along the old Mumbai-Agra road, starting October 5. 

This was decided at a meeting conducted on Tuesday by the zone I police with the trustees of the Kalika temple and officials of the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) to plan various things with respect to the annual Kalika fair during the nine-day festival. Senior police inspector (PI) Suresh Sapkale said that during the Ganesh festival, the NMC had installed CCTV cameras at all the important procession routes in the city and they have agreed to put up cameras on the stretch between Sandeep Hotel and Gadkari Chowk as well. 

Trustee of the temple trust Suresh (Anna) Patil said the temple was nearly 200 years old and witnessed nearly 1.5 lakh devotees daily during the festival. He said that in view of preventing any untoward incident during the festive period, the temple trust should also have 23 CCTV cameras in the temple premises. 

He said a group of ex-servicemen, women volunteers from different organisations and the Civil Defence would be assisting the temple trust in managing the crowd at the temple premises during the festival. Anna Patil added that the trust had taken an insurancecover of Rs 2 crore for the devotees during the festive period and another cover of Rs 1 crore was in place for the jewellery that is put on the temple deity. 

Meanwhile, the police would allow shops having any kind of explosive material within the 200-meter stretch of the road opposite the temple. They are also contemplating installing barricades at different points of the approach road till the temple to avoid vehicles. 

The officials said an anti-sabotage check would be done regularly at the temple premises during the festival in a bid to thwart away any kind of untoward incident by anti-social elements. While explosive materials, including cooking gas, gas balloons, etc., would be banned around the temple premises, the anti-sabotage team of the Bomb Detection Squad would continuously monitor the premises for fire crackers and bombs in the crowded areas. The job of the police would also be to check if electrical connections were well placed and would not pose harm to the devotees. 

Officials said that three PIs, seven assistant police inspectors, around 133 cops, including 33 women cops, and 34 male and 20 women home guards will be deployed for the bandobast. 

The rush at the temple is continuous during the nine days of Navaratra. Anna Patil said the devotees start gathering for darshan right from 3 am with the first aarti, which is performed at 3.45 am; and the rush continues till 1am at night. 

The police are also contemplating making marking arrangement at the Golf Club grounds and the Mahamarg bus stand. It was also decided to check the possibility of making parking arrangement at the Mumbai Naka traffic island and the open plot near Kinara Hotel by the Mumbai-Agra highway.

Source: Times of India, September 26, 2013