SHILLONG: The State Unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has expressed its anguish and displeasure over the alleged mismanagement in handling the crowd by the security personnel during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the city.
While expressing gratitude to the people of the State for their overwhelming response to the civic reception accorded to the Prime Minister by the State Government at the Polo Grounds, the BJP state general secretary David Kharsati said that the public at large had to face a lot of difficulties in reaching the venue and were subjected to constant harassment by the Government machineries and left utterly dejected.
The party asked that despite knowing the mass following of the Prime Minister who can pull lakhs of people how could the State Government be apathetic in its arrangements for his public meeting.
The BJP further said that the Government should have offered invitation cards or passes instead of extending open invitation and thereby insulting the people especially those who came from far flung areas as they couldn’t even enter the ground to have a glimpse of the Prime Minister or listen to his speech from outside.
“Moreover, the party received numerous complaints from the people especially students and children of losing their bags, umbrellas and other belongings at the meeting venue. Many people couldn’t even quench their thirst as their water bottles, among others were seized before entering the venue but no alternative arrangements were made by the Government agencies,” the BJP leader said.
The party, however, has lauded some of the State Government officials for their sincere efforts in rendering their duties.
More criticism for SPG
More complaints against SPG have come to the fore after the visit of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Shillong.
Besides harassment to the people including students who thronged Polo Grounds to hear the Prime Minister, the over- zealous SPG was under criticism from many quarters.
“The mindset of SPG should be changed and they should not view Meghalaya and other Northeastern states as full of militants,” a senior citizen who was present at Polo Grounds said.
Earlier on Friday morning SPG had created confusion on media coverage of NEC plenary session at Convention Centre.
It was learnt that Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan was annoyed over the initial denial of coverage of Doordharshan at NEC plenary meeting which, however, was later sorted out.
Though the blame was on NEC, the NEC officials clarified that they had no role in it.
While, Doordarshan was allowed to cover the entire NEC programme, after negotiations with SPG, other media persons were allowed to cover only the address of the Prime Minister.
When contacted, NEC secretary Ram Muivah said that there was restriction on the part of SPG and PMO and added that NEC was not at all involved in denying the media to cover the whole event.
