A day after the parliament security breach incident on Wednesday, the state Legislative Assembly Speaker Biman Bandyopadhay decided to strengthen security arrangements in the House and in its premises.
On Thursday, Mr Bandyopadhyay held a high-level meeting with security personnel and other senior officials of the Assembly for more than an hour and decided to restrict entry of visitors to the house. MLAs, media persons, Assembly employees and visitors will have to enter into the premises showing their identity proof issued by the Assembly authorities.
Web cams will also be installed at the south and west gate of the Assembly to take photos of guests of MLAs and other visitors. The photos would be fixed with the visitors’ cards. No armed personnel would be allowed to enter into the area where the MLAs sit in the Assembly.
“We have decided to impose some restrictions on entry of MLAs and their guests from now on. MLAs will enter the Assembly through the south gate (main) while their guests accompanying them will use the west gate,” the Speaker told reporters today, adding, “In a bid to prevent yesterday’s incident in the parliament in our Assembly, we took some strong security measures.”
Every visitor would be allowed to spend time inside the Assembly for a maximum of two hours and a security pass will be issued to visitors mentioning the maximum time limit. Security guards of ministers and MLAs would be allowed around the lobby of the house if they keep their arms with authorized personnel of the Assembly.
Expressing serious concerns with the security breach in the parliament, Mr Bandyopadhyay on Wednesday afternoon had said that he might speak to the Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Goyal to discuss strengthening of security arrangements inside the house.
“All employees of the Assembly and visitors are strictly checked by security personnel at the gate every day. Besides the existing security arrangements, I may also talk to the police commissioner if anything more in connection with strengthening of security status is required,” the Speaker had said.