Pune police form special squads to reign in troublemakers during Holi

PUNE In order to keep troublemakers under control, the Pune police have form special squads at police station level including other departments, during the celebration of Dhulivandan and Holi across the city

PUNE In order to keep troublemakers under control, the Pune police have form special squads at police station level including other departments, during the celebration of Dhulivandan and Holi across the city. The PCMC commissionerate has also formed around ten such squads for taking action against the law breakers.

In order to keep troublemakers under control, the Pune police have form special squads at police station level including other departments, during the celebration of Dhulivandan and Holi across the city. (FILE PHOTO)

According the police, the squad will maintain vigil on anti-social elements and ensure that such elements don’t take advantage of the festival and forcefully put colour on those who don’t want to be smeared with colours. Officials will also be patrolling the streets in civil clothes. The police teams will be stationed in sensitive areas as well as slums. Besides, there will be also a police watch at markets, bus stands, main chowks and other crowded places.

CCTV-based surveillance will also be heightened to keep troublemakers under check. The police will also carry out awareness drives on targeting unsuspecting people by throwing colours and water filled balloons as part of precautionary measures to avoid any kind of incident, said officials.

In the aftermath of Covid-19 epidemic, there have been strict restrictions on mass observation of public festivals for the past two years. Holi is being observed on March 17 followed by Dhulivandan on March 18.

Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta said, “The festival must be observed with all the necessary precautions as there has been no celebration for the past two years due to Covid. The police squads will keep a check on the celebrations and ensure that no untoward incident takes place.”

“ Throwing water balloons can create the possibility of an accident. Some drunkards ride bikes under the guise of celebration. All these things will be taken care of and strict action will be initiated against the unruly elements,” said PCMC commissioner Krishna Prakash.