Gated residential communities/societies in NCR have strict and tight security arrangements. They all are enclosed by tall perimeter walls and fences with Y-shaped angle irons and concertina coils on top and lights to ensure nobody can scale the wall or breach it. They have limited number of gates for entry and exit. These are manned 24 hours and they have high tech equipment at the gates as well as within the complex like CCTV, access control, boom barriers, intercoms and so on. A visitor needs to apprise the house owner of his visit beforehand. The host, in turn, informs the Security about the visitor’s details and arrival time. Further, a code is sent on to the mobile phone of the visitor and after it is found matching by the gate guard, are the gates opened for entry. The level of security is exhaustive.
Now, let’s look at Defence Colony. It is hardly a residential area anymore. There are so many offices within the complex. Offices that function till late at night. Like a lawyer’s office or a chartered accountant’s office.
There are schools within Def Col. The school staff and children coming and going in buses, vans, rickshaws and being dropped by parents. Many of them are from outside Def Col. And for residents’ children studying in schools outside Def Col, there are school buses entering the colony to carry these school children to their various schools.
This activity starts as early as 6.30 AM.
Religious places are in abundance. Gurdwaras, Mandirs, Church, Mosque – almost every religion has a religious house within Def Col – open to the public from everywhere.
There are three markets, and the Def Col market is a well-known old market which has now got several popular eating joints and bars. They are open daily up to 1:00 AM.
Next, I come to hospitals & clinics. They are there in E block along Ring Road and within in B and C Block too.
Def Col also proudly boasts of so many well-maintained parks. They are the envy of neighbouring localities which do not have such open, green spaces, and occupants of these neighbouring localities all come in to use these parks. So, we have a massive and constant flow of human beings who make full use of these facilities.
The next issue is that though the location of Def Col is excellent with proximity to all well-known and popular areas, it is bounded by three major highways and roads – West, East and Ring Road in the South. On the North is an 80-foot road which hosts a very large and famous mosque. This road connects Kotla Mubarakpur Market to Lajpat Nagar, both having very high-density population. A very well used road, so much so that even the bridge over the Nala in that area has almost given away and has been closed for repairs. Def Col thus, over time, has emerged as a throughfare connecting these three major roads.
Just a little North of Def Col along the Nala is a JJ cluster, again very highly populated with a lot of addicts and jobless persons.
There now, you have the entire Threat Analysis for Def Col as above. Naturally, Def Col has an immense requirement of a holistic security.
Ideally, what all do we require to keep ourselves secure? In a nutshell, its given below:
• Adequate number of guards and believe me they need to be well trained.
• Monitoring devices to monitor the guards.
• Early warning devices to sound an alert when something is going wrong.
• Strong liaison with the local Police and Fire Brigade.
• Above all a dedicated and sincere Security Committee to implement and ensure the above.
The residents cannot absolve themselves of contributing towards security. They need to inculcate a sense of security within themselves, be the eyes and ears of the security team, ensure that tenants and staff are police verified, visitors coming to a house adhere to the basic norms of a locality like courtesy, proper parking, adhering to speed limits, no honking etc. And cooperating with the Security team.
And please, all residents – security costs money. So please ensure you pay your RWA charges promptly. Everything costs money and what can be more important today than your own security. Your own house guard cannot secure your house alone and certainly not your colony. Your children go to the park to play. They must be safe. Your roads are not supposed to get blocked. They must be cleared.
Your colony guards are your first line of help. Any issue – please call the Def Col Helpline number – 8595499348 (also painted in bold on all gates). Someone will be there with you within 3 to 4 minutes. Be it a medical problem, fire, theft etc. But then they do need their salary. And how much are you required to pay? Perhaps Rs 350 in a month which amounts to Rs 4000 in the whole year per floor. There is perhaps no other locality which will be charging this low amount.
Stay Safe and Keep Your Locality Safe
