Cameras vs scanners: Hoteliers debate security measures post blast in Rameshwaram Café

Bengaluru: In the wake of the Rameshwaram Café blast, the Bruhat Bengaluru Hoteliers Association (BBHA) is actively engaging with private security agencies to strengthen security protocols at smaller hotels and restaurants.  

BBHA president PC Rao said hotels are public places like markets and it is, therefore, harder to deploy security mechanisms. “However, we are looking at cost-effective solutions and are exploring a few ideas with the security agencies,” he told DH.

During visits by this reporter to several restaurants across the city, owners highlighted the challenges in choosing the kind of security system to be deployed and how to put them in place.

Shreeshal Alva, owner of Atithi Satkar in Sanjaynagar, said deploying complicated security measures will impact customer flow. “Stopping customers for security checks will inconvenience them,” he said. “Shooing them away is the last thing hotels can afford. Keeping a close watch is the best we can do.”

While MTR’s Hemamalini Maiya suggested deploying a security guard, Vikas Subramani, who runs the Bengaluru Café chain, said hotels can use hand scanners.

Prominent among the 10 plus hoteliers DH spoke to categorise eateries into three types: top restaurants that can deploy high-end security, medium-size darshini types that can use scanners besides a security guard, and smaller eateries that cannot afford any security.

"The rising costs of basic commodities such as vegetables, milk and other essential commodities has left us with little money to invest in sprucing up security," said a hotelier. 

Regarding shoring up security, officers said they have streamlined enforcing the implementation of the Karnataka Public Safety Act, which mandates places visited by 100 or more people to deploy CCTV cameras.  

Data accessed by DH shows commercial establishments and other places have installed 2,92,821 cameras under the Public Safety Act.