Delhi faces complete shutdown amid Delhi CWG closing ceremony
The capital of India eventually witnessed a complete closure ahead of commonwealth games closing ceremony on Thursday. With all the government offices closed and banks, markets and private offices shut down, the city seemed rather deserted. For a city like
New Delhi, this was perhaps the first time in its history that free mobility of common citizens was completely banned by the security officials. The Jawaharlal Nehru stadium which happened to be the venue of the event was swarming with thousands of police
officials and paramilitary forces. It looked more like a national holiday as most of the streets and markets of the city were wearing a deserted look.
The city was closed primarily for the security reasons as like opening ceremony, besides the foreign athletes and officials, there were a number of high profile guests participating into the ending ceremony. In order to finish with the event in a remarkable
way, president of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa was requested to attend the event in capacity of the chief guest of the event. Moreover, the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Manmohan Singh along with the Chairperson of United Progressive Alliance Sonia Gandhi was
also attending the closing ceremony.
Besides around a hundred thousand police officials and paramilitary forces inundating all the roads of the city, there were around 7500 security personnel who had been deployed at and around the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium. Though the primary concern of all
the security arrangements was to guard the foreign athletes, officials, and high profile politicians, they were also equally focusing upon the 60,000 common spectators which were expected to participate in the ceremony which was to begin at 7 in the evening
up till 10.30 at night.
Looking quite content with the security measures, Rajan Bhagat, the spokesperson of Delhi police told the reporters that just like the opening ceremony, multi-layered arrangements had been made for the ending ceremony of the event as well. “This is perhaps
the first big event for India as a hosting nation, and we just cannot afford to take the things lightly, besides India as a hosting nation, the repute of Delhi security officials is also on stake” said the Delhi police spokesperson.
While telling the details of the security measures he said that all of the spectators would be put through manual and mechanical security checks at 4 different points of the stadium. Besides that, he said, there had been altogether 19 entry points into the
stadium where card readers, metal detectors, door frames, and X-ray baggage machines had been installed. Furthermore, in order to cope up with any unexpected situation, mobile quick reaction teams had also been deployed at the outer premier of the stadium.
Stressing upon the security measures and giving about the details of the arrangements on part of the Delhi Administration the spokesperson further said that several high-tech security equipments including the devices to check chemical, biological, nuclear
and radiological assaults had been installed. In order to cover the lapse, it was told that prior to the start of the ceremony; the Delhi police commissioner YS Dadwal would again review the security measures in a meeting with high security officials.
In a final round of attempts the Delhi police had also deployed snipers, light armoured troops carriers, commandos, and specially trained personnel from paramilitary forces along with the Delhi police officials at the important venues of the games. Moreover,
thousands of police officials in plainclothes were roaming in the markets and street of the city to detect any possible assault or attack in advance.
For the ending ceremony of the Delhi commonwealth games which was held on Thursday October 03, Delhi police had deployed around 28,500 personnel at the venues of the games. Besides them more than 20,000 paramilitary officials were on duty in and around the
stadium and more than 50,000 police officials for general security purposes. Though India could not impress its guests with the commonwealth games arrangements, it certainly made the security arrangements commendable.
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