Believe it or not, some of the countries participating in the 19th Commonwealth games consider Delhi’s “rowdy drivers” a bigger threat than terrorists. This was revealed when home ministry officials met the high commissioners of the participating countries here on Wednesday.
During a discussion on the threat perceptions to the games, the high commissioner of Mauritius reportedly said, “Delhi’s drivers are very bad.” Home secretary GK Pillai was quick to assure him that all measures would be taken to discipline Delhi’s drivers before the games open in October 2010. “ We said that we will launch an awareness campaign to discipline the drivers,” Pillai said.
Given the reach of notorious outfits such as Al Qaida and Lashker-e-Toiba in the subcontinent, the security plan being drawn by the government has taken into consideration all possible modes of attack by terrorists and is taking suitable steps to guard against these, Pillai said.
The capital would have a three-tier security ring for the games, particularly in the airport, the games venues and the games village. Delhi Police would be the nodal agency in charge of security and would be assisted by the central paramilitary forces.
The meeting of the High Commissioners/ Ambassadors of the Commonwealth countries is the first in the series of such interactions planned by the home ministry to tell participating countries about the security arrangements being made for the games. Security experts from the participant nations attend a similar meeting held here on September 23.
Some diplomats raised questions about terror threats, particularly in the light of some teams walking out of the recently-held world badminton championship in Hyderabad.
“We will take the security experts into confidence and show them the arrangements being made by us. We will ask for their suggestion if any and incorporate the same,” Pillai told the diplomats.
