The control room, meant to ensure proper coordination between various state agencies during a crisis, was hardly in control on 26/11.
MUMBAI: The state has been the target of several terror attacks since 1993 and it has borne the brunt of natural calamities like the floods of July 2005. But, from the manner the state government responded to the terror attack last month, it is obvious that it remains ill-prepared to effectively handle emergencies of such magnitude.
The control room, meant to ensure proper coordination between various state agencies during a crisis, was hardly in control on 26/11. It had become just a conference centre, with a handful of ministers and babus. There was no planning by the administration to deal with the attack, a home ministry insider said.
Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister then, was away in Kerala. His deputy and the home minister then, RR Patil, set off towards CST to get first-hand information about the attack there despite the police urging him to stay away from the danger zone. Patil drove to DGP Roy’s office and parked himself there for the night.
It was left to Chief Secretary Johny Joseph and senior bureaucrats Sudhir Thakre and Bhushan Gagrani to take charge. They stationed themselves in the control room. But all that they did was just relay information from the police control room to the Union home ministry.
There was no coordination between the administration, the police and the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). The police and the ATS, usually at loggerheads for one-upmanship, did not have a coherent strategy for a joint operation, the official said.
Even after the Union home ministry confirmed that it was a terrorist attack, the home department in the state was twiddling its thumbs on whether to call the National Security Guards (NSG). It was the chief secretary who decided to seek NSG’s help, state officials said.
Again, almost two hours after the Centre’s confirmation of the terror strike, the Maharashtra government fielded only spokesman Bhushan Gagrani to interact with the
media, indicating that the state had no crisis management plan in place. None from the top leadership of either the Congress or the Nationalist Congress Party was there to reassure the public.
But, as soon as the operations at the Oberoi and Trident ended, RR Patil, keeping his cabinet colleagues in the dark, drove straight to the hotel to claim success, an official said.
k_shubhangi@dnaindia.net
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