After three days of being on high alert the Odisha administration can now relax with the national conference of DGPs and IGPs coming to an end on Sunday.

The capital city had come under a heavy security blanket for the conference which was held in Bhubaneswar for the first time. Prime minister Narendra Modi, Home minister Amit Shah and national security advisor Ajit Doval attended the deliberations that focused on tightening the country’s internal security with enhanced use of technology.

Chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi’s anxiety about ensuring full security for the VVIP guests was clearly visible as he surprised the state secretariat staff by arriving at the Lok Seva Bhavan, the seat of the administration, sharp at 8am in the morning on the last two days of the conference. He used to leave the secretariat only around 10pm after supervising the arrangements.

While the secretariat staff were on their toes, 70 platoons of police were deployed to take care of the security of the VVIPs. These included state police and central police forces. The overall responsibility for VIP security rested with the Intelligence Bureau. The police manned all the entry and exit points to the city where traffic movement had to be regulated. The security was particularly tight because of the Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun’s threat to disrupt the conference though officially the police refused to accord any importance to the threat.

Many in khaki guarded the city’s different entry points. Various parts of the city were declared as no-flying and no-drone zones for the duration of the conference which the BJP touted as a sign of the NDA government paying special attention to Odisha since the establishment of the first BJP government in the state. The Prime minister, too, emphasized this point while addressing the crowd at the felicitation accorded to him at the Biju Patnaik airport.

While the conference was a matter of pride for the state which the BJP tried to encash to the full, it stretched the manpower resources of the state police with director general of police Y.B. Khurania and his deputies working day and night to ensure nothing went wrong. To their satisfaction, the police force passed this test with flying colours.

Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police commissioner S. Dev Datta Singh said, “We pulled out all the stops. We wanted fool-proof security and we are happy to have been able to ensure that.”