The Allahabad district administration will consider for duty only vegetarian, non-smoking and teetotaller policemen at the upcoming Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh, reported News18. The festival is scheduled to start in Allahabad on January 15.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Kumbh) KP Singh on Thursday confirmed the development. “The senior superintendents of police of districts such as Shahjahanpur, Pilibhit, Bareilly and Badaun have been asked to verify the character of the cops who are being assigned duty for Kumbh 2019,” Singh added. “We have written to the SSPs to properly interview the policemen personally as officials for the second, third and fourth phases will be coming from western and other parts of the state.”

Another requirement is that the police officers must not be natives of Allahabad, according to News18. Constables deployed at the festival should be below the age of 35, head constables should be below 40 years old, and sub-inspectors below the age of 45, the police added.

More than 10,000 police officers, including paramilitary personnel, are expected to be deployed during the festival, reported The Times of India.

Security forces will be deployed in four phases beginning October 10. In the first phase, 10% of the forces will be deployed and the figure will increase to 40% in the second phase. In the final two phases, around 25% of the forces will be deployed, which will also include paramilitary personnel.