New Delhi: The “Vote Bachao, Desh Bachao” rally at Ramlila Maidan, organised by the opposition INDIA bloc to protest alleged irregularities in electoral rolls and the SIR process, was held amid heightened security across the city.
450 CCTVs have been installed in and around the site.
We are monitoring them from a control room,” DCP (central) Rohit Rajbir Singh told mediapersons. It was a security nightmare for the heavily protected politicians, but it was also a rare interaction between the leading faces of the protest and their supporters. The others in the open vehicle were National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah, PDP’s Mehbooba Mufti, NCP MP Supriya Sule, Congress’ KC Venugopal, CPI (M-L)’s Dipankar Bhattacharya, CPM’s MA Baby, RJD’s main face Tejaswi Yadav, CPI’s D Raja, among others. “We are ensuring that residents are not inconvenienced in any manner and the entry of protesters to Ramlila Maidan is also facilitated. Police personnel have been stationed at the enclosures and gangways set up by the organisers to ensure safety. The streets around the protest site were cordoned off and only pedestrians were allowed to enter. A mobile police station van and a mobile command and control vehicle were stationed near Ramlila Maidan. Several other anti-riot vehicles were placed near the barricades across central Delhi.