The stage is all set for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 16th visit on Saturday to his parliamentary constituency and Ghazipur where the two NDA allies have considerable influence. Though the PM will also visit here on January 21 to attend the inaugural function of three-day Parvasi Bharatiya Day (PBD) conference, this visit is considered politically important on the eve of forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. During this visit, Modi will woo Rajbhars, a sub-caste of OBC, who are in sizeable number in several parliamentary seats right from Varanasi to Deoria and Ballia in this belt of Purvanchal (eastern UP) during his first meeting at Ghazipur. He is likely to announce some sops for farmers who have played a vital role in all the recent elections.
On Saturday, the PM will land at Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, Babatpur, by the state plane and then directly go to Ghazipur by helicopter to release a postal stamp on Maharaja Suheldev and address a meeting there. After that Modi will return to his parliamentary constituency and land first at PAC Bhullanpur helipad and then by car he will go to Chandpur where he will inaugurate the regional centre of International Rice Research Centre (IRRI). Later, the PM will go to Trade Facilitation Centre (TFC) at Bada Lalpur to review preparations for PBD meet apart from going around an exhibition to be organised under ‘One District, One Project’ programme of the state government in which there will be stalls of all those traditional products of the region which got Geographical Identification (GI) registration recently.
Meanwhile, security forces have also completed their preparations and in view of the PM’s visit, the ADG (Zone) PV Ramasastry, SSP Anand Kulkarni and other senior officers gave various instructions to security personnel maintaining proper coordination while briefing them at Police Lines on Friday. Besides, rehearsal of dummy fleet was also done as per tradition and Special Protection Force (SPG) personnel inspected all the sites and four helicopters of Indian Air Force checked all the helipads in Varanasi and Ghazipur districts.
Foolproof security arrangements will be made during the proposed visit of Modi. In the security arrangements, as many as 10 SP rank officers would be deployed apart from the local officers, 15 ASP ranked officers, 29 DSPs, over 200 sub-inspectors, 1900 constables, four companies of PAC, five companies of Central para-military forces, intelligence personnel, roof-top forces, anti-mine, anti-bomb disposal, fire brigades and sniffer dog squads. Personnel of intelligence wings are already deployed to keep watch on the people living in adjoining areas. The Traffic police have also imposed several traffic restrictions in all the places where the PM is scheduled to visit.