CHENNAI: Let us admit it: security consciousness is not in our collective DNA. How else does one explain the complete lack of alertness and presence of mind among security personnel and public alike in Chennai barely a few days after terrorists triggered a bomb at the Delhi High Court bruising the nation’s collective consciousness?In fact on September 8, the very next day after the Delhi blast amid fears of copycat attacks at similar seats of justice across the country, the security force here could not be bothered. Madras High Court Chief Justice M Y Eqbal got a first-hand experience of the situation after he made surprise visits to all the entry points of the sprawling building. He found just three or four cops manning each of the five entry points. Also, there was no frisking or vehicle checking. What must be particularly galling was the cops’ failure to implement a resolution adopted by the high court’s administrative committee to upgrade security just a day earlier.The police have since decided to tighten security at the high court, as an accompanying report indicates. We will put that claim to test. But for now, look at the reaction time. Why didn’t they act immediately after the Delhi blast or even a day after the incident? When the question was put to the Chief Justice, he said the resolution was communicated to the Assistant Commissioner of Police, who in turn forwarded it to his higher-ups. In other words, red tape. “We are doing our job and it is for them to deploy police,” he said.Red tape apart, second-level police personnel in the city are not quite programmed to react to situations immediately, claims a senior police officer on condition of anonymity. He cites his experience from the two anti-terror drills - Operation Barricade and Operation Hamla - held in the last few months to buttress his point. “During the anti-terror operations, we found that second-level police personnel took nearly eight minutes to reach incident spots, while the response time should have been just two to three minutes,” he points out.Besides, there is something called common sense that must be applied at all times. That was sorely missing among the local police during the anti-terror ops, the officer argues. For example, there are two security mechanisms – pre-emptive and preventive. The intelligence wing passes on inputs on infiltration as a pre-emptive measure. It is up to the local police to take preventive measures - collect information about movements of strange people and act swiftly during emergency situations. “Ironically, they don’t bother to stay focussed even during night patrolling,” he points out. Can there be a bigger indictment for the men in khaki?Remember reading notice boards that exhort “Do not touch unclaimed articles. They could be bombs. Alert the police immediately” – or something to that effect on buses, trains and public places? In the wake of the Delhi bomb blast, you would imagine that people here would be generally more careful and suspicious about unclaimed baggage for at least a few days, right? Express reporters tried to check out just that by placing rucksacks at the reception area in T Nagar police station, CMBT in Koyambedu, Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Saidapet, Spencer Shopping complex on Anna Salai, MTC buses and shopping malls in T Nagar for about an hour and monitoring the action - or lack of it - from a distance. Here’s what we found: Hardly anybody found them suspicious. Nobody alerted the police either. In fact, a cop walked past a rucksack placed in a corner of the Saidapet Magistrate Court building without bothering to inspect it. Perhaps he didn’t notice it, but that in a way tells you why this city is a sitting duck. And how nobody cares about security in their vicinity.So, were operations Barricade and Hamla just a waste of time? Far from it, says Shakeel Akthar, Inspector General of Police, Headquarters, TN . They helped improve co-ordination between the various wings of the security apparatus and understand our strengths and weaknesses.”
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