Shimla April 25; Elaborate security and other arrangements are being made for the one-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Shimla on April 27 and about 2,000 security personnel will be deployed at Jubbarhatti Airport and Annandale helipad to the rally venue at the historic Ridge Maidan, besides intelligence men in plain clothes. A Special Protection Group (SPG) team today discussed the arrangements with BJP leaders and visited the venue of the rally and the route to be followed by the convoy of the Prime Minister. All hawkers and street vendors from Kennedy House Chowk to The Ridge via The Mall have been removed.
Police sleuths have swarmed the forest area from Annandale to Mall Road. However, suspense over roadshow of Modi continues and the police are evasive on the issue while party leaders said it would depend on Modi. The Prime Minister will arrive at the Shimla airport (Jubbarhatti), 22 Km from here, in the morning and launch UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) in Shimla and 50 upgraded airports.
He will fly to Annandale by airforce chopper and drive straight to the venue of the rally. Later, Modi will address a rally for almost an hour from the permanent podium from where former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had announced statehood to Himachal on January 25, 1971.
It would be the first visit of Modi to Shimla after becoming the Prime Minister and the second to Himachal.Modi, who was in-charge of Himachal for organisational affairs of the BJP for nearly eight years, had left Shimla in 2002 and also visited Shimla once as Chief Minister of Gujarat. The BJP is making all-out efforts to make the rally a grand success and, besides launching the “Swachhata Abhiyan” (cleanliness drive), a mass contact programme has been started to extend invitation for the rally to people.
Uncertainty over Hydro-Engg College stone Shimla: Uncertainty prevails over laying of the foundation stone of Hydro-Engineering College at Bilaspur by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the state on April 27.Though all arrangements have been made by the Department of Technical Education to get the foundation stone laid by Modi on The Ridge before he addresses a public meeting, BJP leaders are against any government function on The Ridge.
The BJP leaders feel that since the rally on The Ridge is a party function, they will not want either Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh or Technical Education Minister GS Bali to be present there.
News Source Tribune India
