Thefts holding up Village clean-up

The safest place in Delhi at the moment is facing a threat from the enemy within. Several instances of petty thefts —bathroom fittings, bed-sheets, pillow covers and the like — have been reported from the residential towers in Games Village.

The safest place in Delhi at the moment is facing a threat from the enemy within. Several instances of petty thefts —bathroom fittings, bed-sheets, pillow covers and the like — have been reported from the residential towers in Games Village.

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The Village has a three-tier security system with more than 3,000 security personnel deployed there.

The police suspect the labourers are involved, so they have decided to put four armed men each at all the 34 residential towers. These policemen will frisk the labourers and workers entering or leaving the premises.

“A reason for the delay in completing the finishing work at the flats is thefts. In the flats where labourers were cleaning, they started pilfering fittings. To stop that, we started carrying out the cleanliness work only a couple of hours before any contingent was to arrive,” said Rakesh Mehta, chief secretary, Delhi Government.

Initially there was no plan to put armed men at the entrance of the towers. The decision to deploy the armed personnel was reached after a long argument with the police contending they were not security guards and it was not their job to secure taps and fittings.

On Sunday Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai held a review meeting at the police headquarters with the police commissioner, the venue commanders and Director General of the National Security guard (NSG). “After the issue was raised it was decided that additional force would be deployed at all the towers to plug the loopholes,” said another official who attended the meeting.

Some senior police officers also contended that private guards should be deployed at the towers.