Police assess risk at river banks for Kumbh

NASHIK: City police commissioner Kulwant Kumar Sarangal and other senior officials surveyed Ramkund and river banks in the city on Saturday to assess security measures that need to be in place for Kumbh.
The police department's Kumbh team visited various parts around the river banks to check the risks involved in managing the crowds, such as approach roads and parking lots among others.Cops applied the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis and said they would ask concerned departments to get things done well in time to prevent any mishap.
"The gradient at the Sardar Chowk in the Panchavati area, used by the devotees and pilgrims to reach the river banks could pose the risk of people slipping from the area, which could in turn lead to a stampede. Thus the work of reducing the gradient should be taken up by the concerned department," explained Sarangal.
Asked why the work of assessing such risk areas was not given to some agency, the commissioner said though it would have been an easy option he wanted the police personnel to study everything about the river banks, the parking lots, the roads leading to the river banks and assess risk such structures, such as pillar could pose.
The city police have already taken up a training programme for constables to familiarize them with the topography of Nashik.
The Kumbh cell of the commissionerate is imparting training to constables to acquaint them with the city in the next couple of months. Constables from all police stations are being called in batches of 80 to 90 daily and are being trained for a couple of days.
The aim is to ensure that constables are aware about the number of ghats in the city, their location, the location of the sadhugram where the sadhus and mahants stay during Kumbh, the shahi marg - the route sadhus and mahants take to reach the river banks for the holy dip on the day of the 'parvanis', the route for sadhus to return to the sadhugram after the holy bath, the return route of devotees once they finish their bath, parking areas in and outside the city for vehicles, bus routes among others.
Officials said that once all the constables and officers are trained, training will also be imparted to personnel coming to the city for bandobast from outside Nashik.