Pune police all set to tighten security

In response to the concerns expressed by IT companies, Pune police have begun an initiative to ensure better co-ordination between the companies and the law and order machinery.

As the first step in this direction, the city's Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Chandrashekhar Daithankar held a meeting with heads of IT firms at Hinjawdi to offer safety-related instructions to their employees.

It was decided to set up a special joint committee with representatives from IT companies, educational institutions, MIDC and police to deliberate on problems faced by professionals and students in the Hinjawdi-Wakad area.

The root cause behind the abduction and subsequent murder of Infosys Project Manager Vikram Potdar, which triggered the process of closer co-ordination between the authorities and IT firms, was lack of adequate official transport facilities in the Hinjawdi area.

Though the companies in the IT park provide staff bus service, this follows fixed timings and does not really the cause.

The flexi-time nature of IT professionals' works often make them leave offices at odd hours, and this forces them to go in for any transportation available to reach home.

The problem becomes acute on Fridays when many IT staffers, wanting to come down to Mumbai to be with their families for the week-end, throng the Hinjawdi-Wakad junction and avail of any means of transportation that comes their way.

In the meeting, Daithankar said the companies should make their staff well aware of the risks involved in accepting a lift from an unknown person.

He also instructed that a staffer, if at all takes a lift, must not accept any food or drink from the person giving him the lift note down the registration number of the vehicle and inform his family or friends about it, carry adequately charged mobile phones, avoid carrying credit cards and also remain alert while travelling.

The meeting also discussed the possibility of getting co-operation from the MSRTC for providing buses and taxi drivers' unions for making available taxis on hire for IT staffers in Hinjawdi.

Although at present, the centre of all the debate over security of IT professionals is Hinjawdi, precautions are important for employees -- especially BPO staff who work in shifts -- working anywhere in the city, Daithankar said.