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— Shashi Ashiwal

Mr D. Sivanandhan, Commissioner of Police, Mumbai.

P.T.Jyothi Datta
N.K.Kurup

Mumbai, Nov. 25 If there is one thing Mumbai needed after the brazen attacks of November 26, it was a sense of security. It took just 10 gunmen to inflict wounds on the city, and the scars run deep, even a year on.

The brown combat vehicles that drive around the city silently speak volumes of the palpable terror threats looming over the city.

But showing no obvious signs of being in the hot seat is Mumbai’s Police Commissioner, D. Sivanandhan, who assumed charge about five months ago.

“I am the CEO of security. And in every business community I tell them, I am in charge of the security, let there be no doubt about that,” he says, mincing no words.

But with chilling information that Mumbai continues to be on the terror radar, the Commissioner answers the question on almost every resident’s mind: how safe are we?

“We are as safe as any other city in the world…terrorism can attack any city…anytime. So I can’t guarantee that no terrorist would ever attack Mumbai city. But the only point is, Mumbai city police has prepared themselves absolutely much better than the year 2008,” he says. There is a 1000-men-strong QRT (Quick Response Team) located in five different places, besides 39 combat vehicles with 585 men and officers – both operating day and night, he says, listing measures to sharpen their response to a crisis.

Not getting into whether a command-and-control centre was absent in last year’s response to the attack, he says: “Now we have written a new SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). Earlier also there was one, but now we have written a new one, keeping what has happened in mind. And that is being rehearsed many times in the multiplexes, malls, cinema theatres, schools and colleges and other places.” A three-tier approach has been outlined to protect the city, he says: bomb disposal squads in 13 zones; six control rooms working day and night, “pehle bi tha, abhi bi hai,” (it was there earlier, it is there now too) he says, slipping into Hindi or Marathi with equal ease.

“We are upgrading the control room here, with Rs 2-crore budget, money has come, work has begun, technology-wise,” he adds.

Then there is Force One, as a second layer of support and there is the NSG (National Security Guard) at Kalina. Mumbai will also add 1,000 closed circuit televisions, to the present 200, he says.

Though the coastline has nuclear installations like the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and oil rigs, he says, there is no need for 1.4 billion people to worry over it. “We are taking review (steps), we are conducting audit and we improve their security suggestions,” he says. The CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) is looking after BARC. They are capable and have got about 800 people dedicated to BARC security.

On patrolling the sea, he says, there are new boats from Goa shipyard; hired boats going around; there is the Sagari Suraksha Dal, contact with the fishermen families and villagers and other mass contact programmes, with the slum panchayat and mohalla committees. The police work with the Coast Guard, he says, pointing to his flat-screen monitor to show images of the all-terrain vehicle and bullet-proof boats.

With technology increasingly becoming the vehicle for terror across the world, he quips, technology is good, but “we should be one step above them”. And while they (perpetuators of terror) have an unlimited budget, “we should have a reasonable budget,” he adds.

But tackling terror is a package deal, involving closing the tap on financing and improving local intelligence collection, co-ordination and dissemination. There are meetings between the police force and agencies such as DRI (Department of Revenue Intelligence), SEBI, Customs and so on, he says. Agencies are studying it, he affirms, without divulging more.

On plugging gaps in intelligence gathering, he says, the Maharashtra Intelligence Academy in Pune will address that, with dedicated people working on gathering intelligence. The force has got funds of Rs 36 crore last year and another Rs 102 crore promised this year. And while they have an expenditure plan on what items to spend, “technology and training is the constant improvement required,” he said.

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