The communal tension that disturbed the routine course of life in Ramnagar seems to have come as an eye opener for the State Government ahead of the lok Sabha elections.
If the old hands in Kumaon affairs are to be believed this may also be an attempt on part of a few to disturb the hitherto politically charged atmosphere of Ramnagar which is a crucial part of the Nainital-Udhamsinghnagar parliamentary constituency. It is worth mention here that among others, some pockets of the Nainital -Udhamsinghnagar lok Sabha constituency including Ramangar, Haldwani, Kashipur, Bazpur, Rudrapur to name a few are extremely sensitive from caste and community based politics.
Those candidates who are serious about their victory from this seat can’t afford to ignore these Assembly segments of Nainital-Udham Singh Nagar parliamentary seat in the upcoming lok Sabha elections. However, with the situation caused by communal disturbances in Nainital’s Ramnagar area remaining under control on Sunday, the State Government has urged the Centre to ban social networking sites like the Facebook for the time being as a precautionary measure.
It may be recalled that communal tension erupted in the Ramnagar area on last Friday night only when pictures with some objectionable contents were uploaded by a person on the Facebook. Though the person identified as Rajeev Sharma whose hand was suspected in this case, has been arrested by the police concerned in Ramnagar, adequate police force would continue to look after security situation in the affected Ramnagar area for the time being or unless normalcy is restored fully in that region, said Ram Singh Meena, ADG, (law and order), who is monitoring the security situation in Ramnagar, while talking to The Pioneer.
More so, markets have also been opened on Sunday, keeping in view improving security situation. At the same time, the police and local administration also held meeting with peace committee today on how to maintain communal harmony and peace in the region ahead, added the ADG. When asked about banning the social networking sites, the ADG maintained that process was on this regard.
However, he appealed to the people of all communities to cooperate with the police to maintain social harmony and peace so that routine course of life could move on. It is worth mention here that Ramnagar is one of the socially as well as politically sensitive parts of the Nainital district. As the local people of Ramnagar area have said reports of putting some pictures with objectionable contents had also come to light earlier. But it seems then the enforcement agencies concerned did not pay due attention to these reports. Otherwise, this situation could have been avoided, they maintained. Meanwhile, as the senior officials concerned said tourism activities are going on in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) as usual. The disturbance in Ramnagr has not had any adverse impact on the tourism sector in the CTR, they added.