Security has been beefed up in Bhubaneswar ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to the city to attend the BJP’s national executive committee meeting to be held at the Janata Maidan on April 15 and 16.
The State police are leaving no stone unturned as far as security of the PM’s visit is concerned.
DGP KB Singh told reporters that the entire security arrangements would be supervised by four Inspector General (IG) rank officers. At least 15 SP rank officers, 47 Additional SP rank officers, 52 Inspectors of Police, 80 platoons of Odisha State Armed Police (OSAP), five units of Special Operation Group (SOG) and two companies of CRPF jawans would be pressed into service for security of Modi as well as of 400-odd delegates.
An hour ahead of the Prime Minister’s landing at the airport here at 3.30 pm on April 15, the region would be declared ‘no flying zone’. The PM’s carcade would straight move to the Raj Bhavan, where he would spend
about 45 minutes before heading for the Janata Maidan.
The BJP has decided to accord a rousing welcome to Modi along the route from the airport to the Janata Maidan.
A day before Modi’s arrival, party national president Amit Shah would reach Bhubaneswar at 1.30 pm on Friday.
In morning on April 16, Modi would visit the lingaraj Temple for darshan of the deity. From there, he would go to the Janata Maidan again, said DGP Singh. He would leave Bhubaneswar in the evening on the day.
This apart, the DGP said at least 334 security personnel are coming from New Delhi for the PM’s security purpose. Meanwhile, a team of SPG officials, which is part of the PM’s security headed by SPG IG Jaswant Jethwa, has already reached Bhubaneswar and started
their operation to streamline the security arrangements.
On Thursday, a mock drill was conducted to fine-tune the security measures. The drill was jointly done by SPG and NSG commandoes and the Odisha police
Besides Modi, a host of BJP top leaders like Amit Shah, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and several other Union Ministers besides the Chief Ministers of the 13 BJP-ruled States are scheduled to attend the party executive meeting.