At least 26 Congress activists arrested for breaching the Odisha Chief Ministers convey
19 Feb, Bhubaneswar (Odibizinfo)
At least 26 Congress activists including members of Students’ and Youth wing were arrested by Bhubaneswar Commissionerate police in connection with the breaching the security convoy of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday in the state capital.
The incident occurred near the Odisha Assembly while Chief Minister Patnaik was on his way to Vani Vihar to grace the annual day function of Utakal University, Bhubaneswar.
Meanwhile the Odisha Director General of Police Sanjeev Marik while ordering a high level inquiry into the incident , sought the Police Commissioner, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack Dr.Rajendra Prasad Sharma a detailed report on the issue for taking further action against those involved in the incident.
Besides, Marik said that action against concerned police personnel on duty for dereliction of duty in the security lapse.
For the second time in a little over a year, there was a major breach Thursday in the state capital Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s security as a group of Youth Congress and Students’ Congress broke the security, cordon, pelted eggs and showed black flags at his convoy near Keshari Talkies here while it was on its way to the Utkal University campus at Vani Vihar for a function this evening.
The Congress activists were seen throwing eggs towards the Chief Minister’s convoy while some were seen laying down on the road as part of the demonstration.
The Chief Minister’s convoy was stranded on the Sachivalaya Marg for several minutes before taking a detour to reach Vani Vihar.
As the situation threatened to get out of control, police had to resort to a mild lathicharge to disperse them.
On December 23, 2013, activists of Navanirman Krushak Sangathan (NKS) had breached the security cordon and got close to the Chief Minister’s vehicle barely yards away from the secretariat gate. Rattled by this breach of security, the police establishment had claimed to have refurbished the Chief Minister’s sceurity detail leaving no room for any breach.
But as today’s incident showed, the ovreahul of the security either never happened or was not foolproof. What makes things even more unforgiveable for the policemen in charge of the Chief Minister’s security is that there was definite intelligence input that had forewarned about precisely such an eventuality.