Read the following crowd management situation and the suggested courses of action, and then decide which courses of action logically follow, assuming the statement is fully true. Statement: It is estimated that about twenty lakh people will visit the city during the ensuing festival. Courses of action: a. The civic authority should monitor the crowd closely and, if necessary, restrict entry of people beyond a manageable number. b. The local police authority should be put on high alert to maintain law and order during the festival. c. All the hospitals in the city should be put on high alert in case of any eventuality.

Introduction / Context:
This course of action question addresses the expected inflow of a very large number of visitors to a city during a festival. The aim is to judge which proposed measures are logical, practical, and directly connected to managing the situation. You must decide which steps authorities should reasonably take when such a massive crowd is anticipated.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Approximately twenty lakh people are expected to visit the city during the festival.
• This is a very large number relative to normal traffic.
• There may be pressure on law and order arrangements.
• Large gatherings increase the risk of accidents, health emergencies, and crowd related incidents.
• Civic authorities, police, and hospitals can take preventive steps.

Concept / Approach:
When a city expects a huge crowd:

• Maintaining law and order is a primary responsibility of the police.
• Health services must be prepared to handle emergencies.
• Measures that are impractical or may cause more problems, such as arbitrary crowd blocking without clear feasibility, may not be logical courses of action.

We check each proposed course against these ideas.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Evaluate course of action a. Monitoring the crowd is necessary, but restricting entry of people beyond a manageable number can be highly impractical in an open city with multiple entry points. Without additional information about controlled access or capacity limits, this measure may cause confusion, conflict, and may not be feasible at city scale. Step 2: Evaluate course of action b. Putting the local police authority on high alert is a standard and very logical step. With such a large crowd, risks of theft, clashes, stampedes, and traffic issues increase. The police need to be prepared in advance to maintain law and order. Step 3: Evaluate course of action c. All hospitals being on high alert during a major festival is also a reasonable and preventive course. Large gatherings can lead to accidents, sudden illnesses, or other medical emergencies. Preparedness in hospitals is therefore directly related to the expected situation. Step 4: Determine which courses follow. From the above, b and c clearly follow. Course a, involving restriction of entry beyond a manageable number at city level, is not clearly justified or practical based only on the given statement.

Verification / Alternative check:
Consider how cities normally manage big festivals. Police forces typically work with enhanced deployment and remain on high alert. Hospitals also plan for additional staff and emergency readiness. However, completely restricting entry to the city is an extreme measure rarely used except in very special circumstances and usually requires additional reasons like security threats. As no such special information is provided here, the logic supports b and c but not a.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• Only a follows: Incorrect because a is not clearly practical at city level without more context, and it ignores the important and obvious roles of the police and hospitals.
• Only c follows: Incorrect because law and order concerns are equally important as medical readiness.
• Both a and b are sufficient: Incorrect because it wrongly includes a and leaves out the crucial health preparedness in c.

Common Pitfalls:
Students sometimes assume that more restrictive measures are always better. In reasoning questions, however, feasibility and proportionality matter. It is easy to select a because it mentions restricting entry, but without infrastructure and planning details, this becomes impractical. Another pitfall is to overlook the health dimension and select only law and order measures, but both policing and medical readiness are central in large events.

Final Answer:
Both b and c follow.