Srinagar: Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla Tuesday presided over a review meeting on arrangements and security plans for the upcoming G20 meeting in Srinagar.
The review meetings were held at SKICC, a site that would serve as the major location for the forthcoming G20 meeting, which is located on the shores of Dal Lake.
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar Aijaz Asad and officials from the Tourism Department were present for the first meeting, which began at 12:30.
The G20 event’s preparations were discussed at the meeting’s first session. The Tourist Department’s officials informed Bhalla on the setup for the G20 visitors’ lodging. “Necessary changes were made to the plan to ensure safe and secure accommodation to the guests,” officials said.
The second round of the meeting, also chaired by the Union Home Secretary, took a detailed review of the security arrangements for the G20 event.
“Director IB Tapan Deka, J&K Home Secretary R K Goyal. DGP Dilbag Singh, ADGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar, and GoC 15 Corps Lt Gen A S Aujla were present in the meeting besides officials from the other security agencies,” the source said.
“The plan prepared by the J&K’s security grid that entails plugging and foiling all possible threats including vehicle-borne IEDs, suicide bombing, sticky bomb threat, drone attacks, and grenade attacks were discussed and counter strategy framed and finalised,” the source said. “The deployment of marine commandos and NSG in lakes and rivers was also given a final touch.”
The sources said that it was also decided that the accommodation venue and the event venue would be guarded and sanitised 10 days ahead of the G20 summit and both places would have aerial surveillance through drones.
The G20 events are slated for May 22 to May 24 in Srinagar.
This would be the first time when G20 events would be held in Srinagar under India’s presidency.
The J&K administration has already stated that the event was a great opportunity to showcase the tourism potential of J&K and to give a global push to J&K’s tourism, which is the backbone of the overall economy of the region.
The meeting discussed that the Army would keep a vigil on the highways and other vital road links.
“Special directions were passed to keep a close watch on the suspects to avoid any untoward incident,” he said.
The third round of the meeting discussed the lakes and river management.
The sources said that the Union Home Secretary expressed satisfaction over the decision of handing over the security of lakes and rivers to marine commandos and NSG.
The VC Lakes and Waterways Development Authority was also present on the occasion. KNO