GUWAHATI, Aug 21? With the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) going all out to create disturbance in the State, the question that is haunting the people is how safe is the Guwahati city as any act of violence in the city would ensure maximum possible publicity to the militants. The City Superintendent of Police, HC Nath admitted that there is no parameter to judge how safe is the city but at the same time, he said that the entire police force is working round the clock to prevent the ultras from carrying out any act of violence.
Talking to The Assam Tribune today, the city SP said, ? we have to be lucky every time but the extremists need to be lucky only once to create trouble in the city,? he pointed out. He pointed out that before the Independence Day, the ultras failed to create fear psychosis in the minds of the people of Guwahati because of the steps taken by the Police to prevent the ultras from carrying out any disruptive activity.
Giving an account of the steps taken by the city police to prevent the ultras from carrying out disruptive activities, random checking of vehicles is going on. But he said that it is not possible to check each and every vehicle plying on the city roads as at least two lakh vehicles ply on city roads every day and about 50,000 vehicles enter the city on an average daily. He also said that random search of houses in the vulnerable areas is going on, while, deployment of plain cloth policemen in the vulnerable areas has been increased. He said that police is keeping a tab on the computer institutes and on purchase of vehicles. Some goods carrying trucks are also being checked at random basis, he added.
Nath said that the citizens should also be concerned for their own safety and every owner of the rented houses should provide details of their tenants to the police. He said that despite repeated appeals by the Police, there have been instances of house owners not providing information of the tenants to the police and in some cases, police found that the house owners did not even know the names of their tenants. He pointed out that with new buildings coming up every day, it is not possible for the police to keep tab of the rented houses without the help of the citizens and the floating population is also causing concern for the law enforcing agencies.
However, Nath admitted that such steps would only act as deterrent for the ultras aiming to sneak into the city to create disturbance. He pointed out that in the ever-growing city, it is impossible to check each and every vehicle or house for ultras without pinpointed information and the city police has also engaged spotters to identify militants. He said that from time to time, the police gets information about the plans of the ultras and every attempt is made to foil the same. ?But it is easy for the ultras to sneak into the city with small arms or grenades as we cannot check every person,? he admitted. The City SP said that the hotels are abiding by the request of the police to keep information about the boarders but so far no instruction has been issued to keep photographs of the guests.