The district administration has decided deploy a special team of woman constables to crack the whip on eve-teasers this Durga Puja.

District magistrate Sanjay Kumar Singh on Thursday told The Telegraph that the administration had chalked out a plan to curb the menace.

“Eve-teasing during the festive season is a serious problem. The district administration will not tolerate it. To check eve-teasing, we have decided to depute a team of woman constables in civil dress to keep an eye on teasers,” said Singh, on the sidelines of his janata durbar at Patna collectorate.

He added: “Apart from woman constables, frequent mobile patrolling will also be conducted in all important areas — Dakbungalow Chowk, Boring Road, Boring Canal Road, Nala Road, Bhattacharya Road, Ashok Rajpath, Raja Bazar, Kankerbagh and Maurya Lok. Most of the important Pujas are in these localities and a large number of people visit these places during the festival.”

The five-day Puja begins on October 20.

Singh said: “Sufficient police personnel would be deputed to maintain law and order during the festive season. The initiative to check eve-teasing is another step to ensure that the festival is celebrated in peace, harmony and without fear.”

He added: “I would like to request the revellers to help us by reporting any incident they encounter. We shall take action immediately.”

Asked about specific instructions being given to Puja organisers to prevent eve-teasing, the district magistrate said: “We have asked the organisers to have separate entrances and exits for men and women visiting the pandals (wooden structure to house the idols during Puja). This will ensure that the cases of eve-teasing are less.

“They have also been asked to depute volunteers to help the visitors. The volunteers would act as moral police. They should be given a cap or T-shirt of a particular colour so that people could recognise them immediately.” He added: “We shall deploy policemen in plain clothes at pandals to ensure that teasers and criminals do not disturb the revellers and devotees. We shall also release a 24-hour helpline number soon. We shall come up with several other measures.” Rapid Action Force personnel would also be deployed at sensitive areas.