BHUBANESWAR: Just like the capital city is getting a makeover ahead of men’s hockey world cup at Kalinga Stadium , the police headquarters too has decided to give a smart and sportive look to its personnel. The police personnel, who would be deployed in the stadium, would be given civvies especially track suits and safari clothes.“We have decided to give smart civvies (track suits and safari clothes with police written behind the shirts) to our personnel, who would be deployed in stands. Khaki or olive-green uniform may symbolise military-like security, which we decided to avoid. While maximum deployment will be made outside the stadium, we will rely heavily on more than 150 CCTV cameras inside the sport venue. A control room will come up in the stadium to track footages of the cameras,” director general of police (DGP) R P Sharma told TOI. Sharma said those police personnel, who would be mobilized at the entry points of stadiums for frisking and crowd control, would be dressed in khaki. Besides, some police personnel would be deployed in plain clothes with concealed identity so that they keep an eye on suspicious movements and gather intelligence about mischievous activities, if any.Sharma along with sports secretary Vishal Kumar Dev, commissioner of police (CP) Satyajit Mohanty, inspector general of police (law and order) Amitabh Thakur and deputy commissioner of police Anup Kumar Sahoo attended a security preparedness meeting in the state home department here on Tuesday.Sharma said the police will set up at least five help desks at strategic locations in the city to address the grievances of visitors. “We plan to have those ‘may I help you’ kiosks near Biju Patnaik International Airport , hotels where players or delegates and tourists stay and outside the stadium. Our personnel will give a patient hearing to visitors in distress and help them. The help desks can also receive any kind of complaint from those, who came to watch the hockey matches, and coordinate with concerned police stations,” Sharma said.CP Mohanty said at least 80 platoons of police force are likely to be garrisoned for smooth conduct of the men’s hockey world cup, starting from November 28 till December 16. Players and officials from 16 nations, including Pakistan are scheduled to participate in the mega event. Last month, commandos of national security guard (NSG) from Hyderabad conducted a security audit at Kalinga Stadium. The police headquarters is planning to request the NSG to deploy its commandos at Bhubaneswar till the completion of the international sport event.

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