Hi-tech gadgets to protect landmark buildings

Hi-tech gadgets to protect landmark buildings
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The Karnataka government on Wednesday decided to install hi-tech screening gadgets at some of its landmark buildings, including the Vidhana Soudha and state High Court here, to maintain a close vigil on those entering them in the wake of terror threats, official sources said.

Similar security arrangements would also be made at the newly built Vikas Soudha, an annexe to Vidhana Soudha, which houses the state secretariat and bi-cameral legislatures.

At a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister N Dharam Singh and attended by the Chief secretary, top officials of the home department and the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR), the police made a presentation on a multi-layer security check that had been put in place in and around the Vidhana Soudha, the sources said.

Singh had convened the meeting in the backdrop of Union home ministry's alert that militants were allegedly planning to target some of the landmark structures such as the Vidhana Soudha, the high court building, the Vikas Soudha and the legislators homes, situated close to each other.

The sources said the government was drawing up a series of measures to protect these buildings and all employees would be provided with photo identity cards with inbuilt barcodes.

Electronic device-fitted doors to be installed outside these buildings would screen the identity of the person before allowing them, they said. Even ministers would be issued photo id cards and would have to subject themselves to the screening while entering the Vidhana Soudha, the sources said.

The sources said all those visitors seeking entry in to these places would have to undergo a multi-layered check. A foolproof security arrangement was being made for the High Court building.

Hereafter, no function would be allowed in the banquet hall and conference hall at the Vidhana Soudha, they said.

Roadside eateries that have come up near the High Court would be removed, they said. The government has installed metal detectors at all the entry points of the Vidhana Soudha after the Ayodhya attack and vehicles without valid passes were not being allowed.