Navratri: Forget crowds, even CCTV cams are watching

As the zest for nine nights of Navratri grips the city, a major concern that raises eyebrows is the security arrangements during this period.

With hordes of people gathering at various garba venues, the fear of security still remains.
Prominent organisers of different garba venues have installed closed circuit TV cameras which have become mandatory and thereby allowing people to enjoy almost a tension-free Navratri.

Organisers said almost four people were being placed just to take note of what's happening at the venues. "We have tight security arrangements at our venues with everything being monitored through CCTV," said Meghal Shah, director at Mit-Megh Group.

Echoing Shah's view, Jaydeep Mehta, director at True Events said, "As we do every year, even this time we have all installed safety measures in place at our venues."

Another organiser stated that the fear of security will always remain. But, with the increasing awareness among the people about security and related measures, the situation becomes much better with organisers also following all the required norms for this purpose. If any untoward incident occurs, they would willingly provide the CCTV footage to the police.

Mahesh Desai, chairman at Friends Garba said, "With the garba organised by us having more invitees, we have adopted a more personalised approach by ensuring tighter security. Apart from CCTV cameras, we have some 10 odd cars specially to drop the children of our invitees at late nights."