Tough twin tasks to keep cops on tenterhooks

It is not going to be just another Sunday for the Hyderabad city police. As massive preparations are going on to ensure smooth conduct of Ganesh immersion on Saturday (Sept 29), which goes on the whole night and spills over to Sunday (Sept 30), rough calculations made by the city police indicate that over 1,000 idols will be carried for immersion on Sunday despite police insistence that Ganesh pandal managers hurry up with idol immersion.

This is likely to create a chaotic situation for security agencies as, on the one hand idol immersion in Hussainsagar will be in progress and, on the other, Telangana marchers will make all efforts to reach the same place  to stage a protest rally.

Police are visualising various scenarios that could unfold on September 30. In case Telangana activists manage to reach Tank Bund when the immersion would be going on, how can the policemen identify and segregate Telangana activists and devotees. ‘’It will be just impossible,’’ sources said. In case trouble breaks out, genuine devotees will leave the idols behind and run helter-skelter, and it could lead to stampede on the road. Damage to idols by miscreants could worsen the situation.

About 20 companies of central paramilitary forces, which include CRPF, BSF, CISF and RAF, are being brought in to beef up security and how many men should be deployed on and around the Tank Bund and other places is still being finalised. ‘’We are keeping our fingers crossed,’’ is all what a senior police official said when asked about the possible scenarios on Tank Bund on September 30. ‘’The only saving grace is that it will be a Sunday,’’ he said.

Another factor causing worry to the police is the inputs trickling in suggesting that several Ganesh pandal managers, having affiliation with a certain political party, may try to deliberately delay the immersion process in their own ways. ‘’The political party has extended its support to the TJAC-sponsored Telangana March and our information suggests that several pandal managers may try to indulge in deliberate delay to make things difficult for the security agencies,’’ the sources said.