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Mumbai: Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil has expressed displeasure with steps taken for the security of suburban railway and bus commuters.
After serial bomb blasts in Karnataka and Gujarat, Mumbai has been put on high alert as a potential target for terror attacks.
However, an assessment of preventive security measures showed up serious inadequacies in a city that has already had a taste of terror attacks in the past.
Over 200 commuters were killed in serial blasts on commuter trains in the city on July 11, 2006. Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister R.R. Patil, after an uninformed visit to railway stations recently, observed there no surveillance or security checks were being conducted at stations.
"I found many illegal entry and exit points that are used by commuters to enter the stations," he said. "These points do not have any security arrangements," he said.
Patil has urged the railways, which includes the suburban network of the Western Railway, Central Railway and Harbour Line, to make arrangements to frisk commuters and check their belongings when they enter and exit from entrances other than the designated ones.
Surveillance measures
At a meeting of senior officials from the railways, police and BEST, Mumbai's public bus service, Uttam Khobragade, general manager, BEST, said that about 350 buses had been fitted with closed-circuit television cameras and seven special squads formed to frisk suspicious-looking passengers.
The BEST has a fleet of nearly 3400 buses.
Director General of Police A.N. Roy said that big shopping malls, multiplexes and residential towers coming up in Mumbai and in other cities across the state presented serious questions about security.
Malls could be easy targets for terrorists, he warned and said it was not enough to provide door frame and hand-held metal detectors and closed-circuit cameras.
Roy called for private security guards to be deployed besides regular security personnel. Emergency exits were very important while designing buildings and it was essential to suitably amend the relevant laws, he said.
As per the Supreme Court's directive in September to all states in 2006, the state is expected to set up the Maharashtra State Security Commission which will advise it on various security-related issues.
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