Bharat Bandh called through messages posted on the social media against the caste-based reservation failed to evoke any response anywhere in the state except Almora district with life remaining normal in Dehradun, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital cities on Tuesday. In Almora, about 250 persons gathered at Gandhi Park as part of the anti- reservation stir and submitted a memorandum to the sub-divisional magistrate, demanding abrogation of caste-based reservation. Around 75 percent of the shops in the district remained closed, said Almora SSP P Renuka Devi while talking to The Pioneer.
She said that they had received no report of shops being forcibly shut down in the city. “The traders chose to have their shops shut on their own. However, after the noon, shops started opening. Save for the peaceful gathering of around 250 people at Gandhi Park, no rally was taken out in the district as the section 144 remained enforced. As a part of precautionary measure, police personnel were deployed at important places. Intelligence staffers were put on alert too,” she said.
Haridwar SSP Krishan Kumar VK said that no rally had been taken out from any part of the district. “We have made elaborate security arrangements with the deployment of additional forces at important places in the district. Police teams were vigilant on the social networking sites as were the intelligence staffers,” he added. In Bahadrabad market, around half of the shops were found closed. A police officer based in the area said that the traders shuttered their shops on their own in the morning in response to the shutdown call without any report of forced being put on them. However, the shops reopened around noon, he added.
Udham Singh Nagar SSP Sadanand Date said that as a part of precautionary measures, police remained alert. “Patrolling was done at the police station level and no rally was reported from any part of the district. Things were peaceful,” he added.Dehradun SSP Nivedita Kukreti said that police were deployed at several places in the city, including the Clock Tower, after section 144 of CrPC was enforced around midnight. “There is no report of a protest rally being taken out anywhere,” she added.
Nainital SSP Janmejay Khanduri said that elaborate security arrangements have been made in view of the anti- reservation stir and no rally has been taken out in protest against the reservation system.
Notably, state police had earlier directed the district police chiefs to be alert in view of the nation-wide shutdown threatened on the social networking sites.
A senior police officer based in the police headquarters in Dehradun said that they were extra cautious in view of the violence that rocked some places during the Bharat Bandh called to protest against the alleged dilution of the SC/ST Act on April 2.