As the Shimla BJP has stuck to its decision to hold Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally at the historic Ridge, a new controversy erupted on Wednesday, as contradictory reports on the vulnerability of The Ridge have surfaced.
While the three-member committee headed by Deputy Commissioner Rohan Chand Thakur found no cracks over the water tank area on the Ridge, the Municipal Corporation in a report prepared during cleaning of the water tanks had found fissures in the first three chambers of the water tank on February 2017.
The tank was inspected by the Municipal Engineer and Executive Engineer then. The Ridge is located on top of the water tank and was constructed during the British period when Shimla was the summer Capital of pre Independent India.
Putting forth the contradictory reports before the public, Deputy Mayor Tikender Singh Panwar in a tweet said that the first report had found fissures in the water tanks and the report was prepared by the people who had entered the water tank but the administration had been relying on the report of the people, who roamed around the tanks and gave a clean chit.
Questioning the report prepared by Deputy Commissioner, Panwar has tweeted that whose report should be trusted, those who entered the tank or those who just roamed around it.
Suggesting a solution for the conservation of the Ridge, Panwar said that a comprehensive plan was required to be made and banning major activities which attract major gathering could be the first initiative in this direction.
It is learnt that the matter of MC report prepared by the MC in February had also figured in the meeting of the BJP’s organisation committee for the Parivartan Rally. As a former MC Commissioner had downplayed the concerns raised in the MC report, the issue was ignored. It is also said that the speculation of cracks in the tank were not valid as there was no masonry work in the tank and it consist of plates and rods which are tightly clubbed together with high quality of Brass nuts and bolts.
It is also pertinent to mention that High Court of Himachal Pradesh in 2015 had pointed out that indications of Himachal Pradesh falling in seismic zone IV and V in latest studies had failed to indicated that most of the remaining in zone IV, this fact had failed to move the authorities in Shimla.
High Court had commented that Shimla's north slope of the Ridge and open space just above the Mall, which extends to the Grand Hotel in the West and lower Bazaar in the East, was slowly sinking.
Despite the controversy, the Shimla Administrtion on Wednesday was in full swing to finalise the arrangements for PM’s rally at Ridge. DC Shimla in an order said that keeping the rally in mind the vehicular traffic would remain one way from Dhali choke to Sanjouli bypass. SPG conducted trial run of traffic plan as cavalcade of vehicles seen rushing from Annadale ground to Ridge or From Shimla Airport to Ridge ground.
Union Health Minister Jagat Prakesh Nadda and former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal visited Shimla Airport to have a look at the arrangements for the re-launching of air flights. State BJP president Satpal Singh Sati, BJP leader Mahinder Singh Thakur, Rajiv Bindal, Mayor of Shimla MC, Sanjay Chauhan and Deputy Mayor Tekinder Singh Panwar also visited the Ridge venue of Rally.
SPG Commandos, police person in civil uniform, and BJP workers were seen keeping a strict vigil of the venue and town since last two days. Entire stretch from Shimla Airport to Ridge was sanitised by the police and they were keeping multi layered security arrangement.