VARANASI: Women police officers should be present in every spectator enclosure, visitors should receive courteous assistance and entry should follow the prescribed security screening, police commissioner Mohit Agrawal told personnel assigned to the October 24 and 25 air-show deployments.
The directions came at a briefing at the police lines on Friday, October 23. Officers and personnel were briefed on arrangements for the air show and the Prime Minister’s visit, with public convenience included alongside security and crowd management.
Agrawal instructed officers to keep inspecting their assigned duty areas and ensure that personnel under their command remained alert. He called for coordination between the teams handling security, traffic and crowd movement rather than treating those responsibilities as separate arrangements.
The instruction on women police personnel applied to each viewing enclosure. The commissioner also stressed the safety of women spectators and the need to provide necessary help while dealing politely with people attending the programme.
Screening and route monitoring
Entry to the programme venue is to take place only after the required security checks. The direction applies alongside the access conditions for the relevant viewing area; it is not an announcement of unrestricted entry to every enclosure.
The briefing also called for adequate police deployment and monitoring along the VVIP route, at the programme venue, at major intersections and at sensitive locations. Lanes, road cuts and crowded points connected with the route were included in the instructions.
Hotels, dhabas, guest houses and other places used for overnight stays were to be checked as part of the arrangements. These directions formed part of the advance briefing, rather than a report of arrests or a specific incident at any establishment.
Assistance remains part of the assignment
Personnel were briefed on responding to unexpected situations as well as managing ordinary visitor movement. The emphasis on coordination links those tasks: a queue, a traffic diversion or a request for assistance may involve more than one team at the venue.
For visitors, the practical approach is to follow the directions for their assigned entry point and viewing area. A route that is available at one point in the day may be controlled differently as personnel manage arrivals and movement around the programme.
Families should keep their group together, leave access routes clear and seek help from personnel on duty rather than moving against a queue. These are practical precautions for attending a busy public event, not additional entry rules announced in the briefing.
Friday’s instructions concern the October 24 and 25 deployments. They set out how personnel are expected to combine security screening, women’s safety, traffic coordination and assistance to spectators. Visitors should check current official access and traffic instructions before travelling, since this briefing does not replace a route-specific advisory.
