The Nainital district administration that is on the back foot after being unable to anticipate the public reaction turning into communal disturbance in Ramnagar last weekend now seems to be on a image makeover spree through media.
If the sources in the corridors of power are to be believed, perturbed by reports of mishandling of communal tension in Ramnagar, in some sections of media, special instructions were reportedly given from higher authorities to the officials concerned of the Nainital district administration to ensure some positive media coverage post incident as their kin are at the helm of affairs here.
The district administration has mobilised its information wing, deputing officials concerned in communal tension affected Ramnagar to give a positive perspective on part of the district administrative machinery on the situation.
Meanwhile, the administration, which is now on a damage control mission, has also called upon the officials concerned to conduct verification drive to ascertain identity of those who are coming from outside including labourers, occasional visitors , tenants to name a few.
There is a general feeling here that had the district administration conducted the verification drive in time perhaps it would have been easier for it to handle the situation and more importantly, to identify the suspects post communal tension as easily as possible.
The administration has also directed officials to verify those coming from outside to Ramnagar during meeting with the representatives of different social organisations.
At the same time the administration also asked officials to conduct arm licence verification. These post incident corrective measures on part of the Nainital district administration only exposed that necessary homework was not done to meet any eventuality, alleged the local people here.
Now, the State police department has also taken action against some police officials who were looking after security aspect of the region.
But people and members of different social organisations have said that taking action against a few officials will not serve any purpose. The enforcement agencies will have to deal strictly with the anti-social elements, they maintained.
It is worth mention here that Ramnagar is one of the most socially sensitive parts of Nainital district. Being a tourist destination, movements of occasional visitors have only made this city more vulnerable to such kind of incident of late.