No VIP culture at Mahakumbh, all will have to walk 1 km on normal days

The Uttar Pradesh government is gearing up for the biggest human congregation on earth -- the Mahakumbh 2025.

- Rohit Kumar Singh

LUCKNOW: Several state agencies, including one of the largest police forces in the world - the UP police - are gearing up to provide a safe and incident-free event that will start on January 13 with the Paush Poornima Snan. The Mahakumbh is deeply rooted in Hindu mythology and stands as the world's largest collective act of faith. In an exclusive conversation, Rohit Kumar Singh spoke to Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP) Prashant Kumar about the state police preparedness for the event.

Besides giving details of force deployment and other measures for crowd management, Kumar said no VIP will be allowed to enter the Mahakumbh area on four-wheelers. Excerpts:

How are the UP Police addressing potential cyber security threats during the Mahakumbh, particularly in protecting critical systems and safeguarding the data of millions of devotees?

In cyber security measures, apart from opening a cyber police station in the Mahakumbh area for the first time, the cyber cell of the Prayagraj Police Commissionerate is fully devoted to curbing crimes related to the event. Apart from this, the cyber threats which we envisage are being monitored by the cyber wing of the state police under additional director general (ADG), Cyber Crime, Binod Kumar Singh as well as Special Task Force (STF). We have also roped in the national agencies like CERT-IN. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team is an office within the ministry of electronics and information technology of the government of India and is the nodal agency to deal with cyber security incidents, and I4C, the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre is a government initiative to deal with cybercrime in India, in a coordinated and effective manner. It is affiliated to the ministry of home affairs, Government of India, for cyber patrolling and analyzing cyber security network.