KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
The “’fool-proof” security arrangements made for Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Sopore caused great inconvenience to the common people. There was a curfew-like situation in the town during his Gandhi’s visit and public transport especially School cabs were forced to change their usual routes.
Gandhi was supposed to address Congress workers at Dak Bungalow Sopore. The management of one of the private schools was directed to keep their school shut for the day.
The town was virtually changed into a fortress with around 20,000 troops of army, CRPF and state police on the roads. Muneer Ahmed who was accompanied by wife and child was among a hundreds of locals who were stopped a few kilometers from their homes. “Our house is just on the other side of Dak Bungalow,” a woman was telling the policemen on security duty, but to no avail. All the lanes in the town were blocked by Government forces. The patients, attendants, school children and common people also faced inconvenience due to repeated checking in the town and outskirts. “We were halted for more than an hour and were not allowed to proceed towards the hospital,” an attendant accompanying a female patient told CNS.
The routes of local minibuses and school cabs had been diverted or curtailed due to VIP movement.
“Government should ensure that the common people did not face any harassment due to security arrangements whenever VVIP’s visit the town next time. The security personnel troubled the common people a lot. There was a curfew-like situation in the town,” said a group of people and appealed VVIP’s not to visit the town in future.
A police official said that security arrangements were fool proof as the authorities did not want to take any chances.
