Heavy security for Durga Puja in Tripura 

Agartala, Sep 23 : More than 4000 men in uniform, besides plainclothes personnel, would be deployed across Tripura to maintain law and order situation during Durga Puja, while the BSF was asked to keep a close vigil along Tripura-Bangladesh border. 

Home department officials here today said the Director General of Police had held high level security meetings with all the Superintendents of Police and commanding officers of all other paramilitary forces, including Assam Rifles, CRPF and BSF. 

Additional forces had already been deployed in all the sensitive and bordering police stations and extra measures were taken in Agartala to ensure peaceful celebration of Durga Puja. 

Agartala has been divided into ten security sectors and senior police officers have been appointed as head of each sector, said West Tripura Superintendent of Police KV Sreejesh, adding 22 police assistance booths would be set up across the capital for the convenience of the common people. 

He said five drop gates, along with some additional gates, would also be installed in every entrance point of the city to control the vehicular movement during Puja days with four to five watch towers. 

Apart from that, metal detectors would be installed in front of selected 10 to 15 Puja pandals of the city and a special bomb squad with sniffer dogs would be pressed into action round the clock and number of mobile patrolling parties would also be increased during Puja days, Mr Sreejesh underlined. 

Meanwhile, Meghalaya and Mizoram have assured Tripura to supply additional 20 MW power during Durga Puja starting tomorrow, while Tripura State Electricity Corporation Ltd (TSECL) has requested Northeast Load Dispatch Centre to provide additional power during festive season. 

Talking to mediapersons here Power Minister Manik Dey today said TSECL had already taken steps to manage demand feeder based power supply across the state and loadshedding was stopped for the time being from yesterday. 

''We have assessed that the maximum power demand during Durga Puja would be 180 MW in peak hour and yesterday it was 162 MW,'' Mr Dey said, adding there was no chance of power cut unless major disaster and the corporation planned to continue uninterrupted power supply up to Laxmi Puja. 

He pointed out that the state's own generation had already reached 85 MW and rest 95 MW would be imported from outside to fulfill the demand during Durga Puja.