If you’re drawing up a plan for your New Year’s eve party, the Bengaluru City Police has some ideas too.To make sure that New Year revelry does not go out of control, the police have set down a host of measures that must be followed by event management companies, pubs and bars with regard to New Year parties.

All eyes this New Year’s eve are not on the revelry on MG Road and in the Central Business District (CBD). The Bengaluru City Police (BCP) will be kept on their toes with the tech corridor of Whitefield and adjoining areas developing into another hub for New Year’s eve revellers.

Women security personnel

To ensure an incident-free yet joyful welcome to 2019, the police have come out with a checklist for party organisers and pubs. And for the first time ever, the city police has mandated party organisers and pubs to hire and deploy women security personnel and bouncers at New Year parties. Another mandatory requirement for hosting New Year parties is to ensure that there is a tie-up with cab aggregators or cab services to ensure that there are safe transportation options open for customers to reach home if they end up in high spirits at the New Year party.

Bengaluru’s night of shame

“We are taking measures to ensure that there is no untoward incident during the New Year parties. Hiring women bouncers, security personnel and arranging transportation facilities are all part of the mandatory requirements that are to be in place for the New Year party. It is also being discussed whether drones are to be used for surveillance,” said Sadiq Pasha, Inspector, Marathahalli police station.

Police point out that additional private security guards and women security personnel will be deployed to assist the police while dealing with revellers.

It has also been made mandatory that security personnel hired should have necessary documents and police verification. In addition to this, the police have also decided to monitor the sales of tickets for New Year events. They said strict control would be maintained to ensure that excess tickets are not sold beyond the capacity of these establishments which could end up in uncontrollable crowds congregating at these places.

“We have made it mandatory that inspectors of the local police station will inspect these places and ensure if all the guidelines are being followed and only then will we give permission for the New Year’s party,” said Abdul Ahad, Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru City Police (Whitefield).

Whitefield revelry

Unlike MG Road and Brigade Road where revellers converge at one point at midnight, parties in Whitefield are often scattered. However, certain areas, like near the Marathahalli bridge, Phoenix mall and some spots on the outer ring road see large gathering of crowds. All hotels and pubs have been instructed that they should have security cameras not just inside their establishments but also outside covering the street including the nearby entry and exit points.

As of now it has been decided that the inspection of these establishments should be completed before December 24 and a final round of meetings will be held with Deputy Commissioner before granting the final clearance to host the parties. An initial meeting was convened last week where all these guidelines were explained to event managers and pubs and restaurant owners.

New Year celebrations in Bengaluru, especially on MG Road, have come under severe scrutiny even since New Year celebrations in CBD went out of control on December 31, 2016 and several women revellers were molested. Though the police claimed that they did not get any formal complaint in this regard, the department decided to opt for stern measures in 2017 to prevent a rerun of the previous year. This year, the BCP, seem to be in no mood to tolerate rash and unruly behaviour from revellers.