City cops flex muscles; avoid repeat of NYE 2017

Every New Year’s Eve, a sea of people descend on MG Road and Brigade Road to have a good time. Those who do venture out know that there will be a lot of pushing and shoving as the swarm moves on, which is part of the whole celebration experience. But, then, last year, things allegedly went out of hand, when several women partygoers were molested, branding Bengaluru a city of gropers.Hardest hit, at the time, was the city’s police force, which was blamed for the ‘poor’ safety measures in place.
Naturally, that was not something they wanted to hear again, as a result of which, hotspot stretch Brigade Road was guarded like a fortress. When we hit the area to get a feel of the crowd, what caught our eye at first was the elaborate set up that the police had made on Brigade Road. For starters, the number of police officers and volunteers almost numbered as many as the crowd itself. Revelers were allowed entry only from the MG Road side and exit at Residency Road in that one direction, with other entry/exit points at Church Street, etc., blocked. While the existing footpath was reserved for families and women, the centre of the road was for the general crowd, which had to keep moving and leave as soon as possible. No one was allowed to linger. Interestingly, the cops had also created a separate ramp only for police patrol movement, which also allowed them to keep a closer eye on the people and assist anyone who needed to be guided out.
Every now and then, entry into Brigade Road was blocked altogether to allow the crowd to move on before more people joined in. At any given point, the ‘situation’ was under control.
When the Metro was force shut
In keeping with the festivities, Metro rail services operated well into the night (2 am), and it looked like many Bengalureans actually heeded the ‘don’t drink and drive’ rule and preferred to use the carrier. But at one point, there were just too many people trying to get into the MG Road station to leave the area, so much so that officials were forced to pull the shutters down to keep them at bay. This, unfortunately, inconvenienced those who had just arrived at MG Road and were stuck inside the station, unable to head out.
Rakesh.Ravindran @timesgroup.com