Government initiates red alert drill

NT NETWORK
Posted on 2008-12-08
PANAJI - The Goa government on Sunday issued a ‘red alert scheme’ to test the reactions of the police in view of the terrorist threat, say police sources.
“There is no specific red alert but a general tightening of security due to the heightened security threat,” the Chief Secretary, Mr J P Singh, told ‘The Navhind Times’, denying that there was any red alert issued.
Police sources say that this drill has been made into a type of procedure in printed form for the first time and distributed to police stations to put some rules down and was issued to see their level of preparedness to face any eventuality.
It may be recalled that recently the Chief Secretary had buttressed the point that the state needed one more reserve battalion in view of the fact that it faced a serious threat from terrorists as there were specific inputs that Al Qaeda would target certain targets in the state and stressed that the state has a vast coastline of 105 km which has major sea ‘posts’ and famous beaches. He had also pointed out that as the state was the permanent venue for IFFI and this along with the busy tourist calendar was putting a massive strain on the police machinery so an extra force was necessary.
However, experts say that the government instead of just pushing for one more battalion, needs an ATS force and atleast one unit of NSG commandos on an urgent basis as the battalion would only be useful for law and order situation while the ATS and the NSG would play key roles in thwarting any attack.