Tight security arrangements for New Year’s Eve in City Beautiful

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 29

The City Beautiful will witness a three-tier security cover on the New Year’s Eve following an alert. The UT Administration has offered to give special permission to clubs and restaurants to remain open till 2.30 am in view of the celebrations.

Following the alert, the Chandigarh Police have strengthened the security. Around 2,159 police personnel, including 600 women cops, 1,803 constables, 60 PCR vehicles with additional vehicles of SHOs, DSPs and motorbikes, will be deployed around the city. As many as 86 check posts, 23 nakas and additional 32 nakas will be laid in the city to prevent any toward incident.

Owners of pubs, restaurants, night clubs and farmhouses have been asked to hire bouncers and deploy additional security men to avoid any untoward incident inside the clubs. Besides these guidelines, the police authorities have also asked the owners of clubs to install special CCTV cameras to record the celebrations.

“We are not deploying security to play a spoilsport, but to ensure that the local residents enjoy the day at the best. A trial for the same will be conducted on December 30. On December 31, everything will be done as per the plan till late night,” said SSP Sukhchain Singh Gill.

The SSP said: “Club owners should also ensure the security of their customers. No nuisance will be tolerated at any cost. SHOs of the respective areas will keep a hawk’s eye on all activity”.

“The ASP (East) will supervise the hotel and club areas. In case of any emergency, people are free to call at helpline numbers,” said Gill. As many as 13 DSPs and 42 inspectors will supervise activities of the day.

Get special permission to serve liquor till 2.30 am

Though all clubs will be offering liquor till 1 am followed by buffet, the Chandigarh Administration is granting a special permission for extension of bar timings (maximum till 2.30 am) for selling and serving liquor. The permission could be attained through the Department of Excise and Taxation, UT Administration.