Mumbai:
Mid-drill, trotted out for the media, Mumbai's neighborhood commandos seem friendly. These are the men of the First Response Team or FRT, raised from the city police, a sort of localized National Security Guard. There's one such team for each of Mumbai's 5 police regions, meant to respond at short notice in a crisis.
But they are far from battle-ready, waiting to be fully trained and armed. The delays are characteristic and worrying of a city that's ready to spend 36 crores on modernizing its police force.
Weapons ordered a month after 26/11 arrived in August this year. Among them, pistols, automatic weapons, grenade launchers. But of the 250 bulletproof jackets ordered, only 100 have reached the force, and these have been paid for by private donors. A hundred bullet-proof helmets remain on the wishlist.
200 combat vehicles, bulletproof jeeps and bikes among them, are with the police now. Of 50 speed boats ordered to patrol the coast, 15 were handed over. Crucial equipment like GPS devices and satellite phones are also nowhere to be seen.
Even the new National Security Guard hub for Mumbai remains a theory. The 23 acres of land required have yet to be handed over to the NSG. Nothing to fuss about, according to Home Minister R R Patil, who says, "The government has done a lot. Which work is left, the review will be taken soon. There will be no more loopholes, and so we are working on it.''
That's far from reassuring a city that's commemorating the first anniversary of India's worst-ever terror attack.