Security at T G Halli Dam
July 31, 2006
.... Yesterday, we decided to check out T G Halli (that's Tippugondanahalli to you) Dam, and see if we could spot any interesting birds. This post is not about the birds, but about birdbrains... <FONT size=2> Once we got there (about 35 km) we were told by the watchman, who was just letting another car (without a permit) in, that unless we had a permit, even a recommendation from the CM or the PM would not get us in! Great dialogue by the watchman...</FONT>
<FONT face=Arial size=2>We backed up a little and had the enterprise to talk to one of the local youths, Raju, and take him back to the gate; upon his talking to the watchman, we were allowed to go in...without the camera! In this age of mobile phones, our Govt still thinks that if we leave a large,obvious looking camera behind, we cannot compromise security. And how security can be compromised by our taking a camera inside, when, a few yards further down the road, the dam is clearly visible for all to photograph, I don't know.
While we were walking around, we saw several other people come in. Even while we were arguing, the watchman let the car which came before us, past the gate. Apparently one of the passengers had worked there earlier. This was enough security for the watchman!
It's the old, old story...as soon as you have some power, try somehow to harass the ordinary citizen with stupid rules, moronically enforced....we could easily have gone past, and got through the pathetic barbed wire fence at another point, and gone about our work....with no one the wiser. We chose to observe the rules, and so the rules were used against us....I was calculating how long it would take a terrorist armed with plastic explosive to a) hit the lanky guard into insensibility and walk in, b) breach the fence and walk in, c) drop the explosive from a light aircraft... </FONT></DIV>