City roads from PMG Square to Acharya Vihar and from Acharya Vihar to Vani Vihar wore a deserted look at least for half an hour as shops and market complexes remained closed and vehicles were stranded ahead of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s visit to the Utkal University campus here on Monday afternoon.
The Commissionerate police didn’t take any chance for any agitators to show black flags or shout anti-Government slogans during movement of the CM’s cavalcade. A large number of armed police personnel stood on roadsides hours before the CM came to inaugurate a boys’ hostel and a sports hostel in the university campus.
Over a 100 activists of the Student Congress and the ABVP were taken to preventive custody to avert any form of protest by them.
Notably, some Student Congress activists had managed to pelt rotten eggs at the CM’s car at the Rabindra Mandap during his visit to Vani Vihar last year.
Opposing the CM’s visit to the premier university of the State, Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists alleged that no development has been effected during the 16 years of the BJD rule.