The Delhi Police has rolled out a strong security apparatus in and around Ramlila Maidan to ensure nothing untoward happened during the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally on Sunday.
Historic Ramlila Maidan is situated at a little over a kilometre from Old Delhi’s Daryaganj that was hit by violence during a protest against the new citizenship law.
A senior police official said that they had requisitioned 20 companies of the central armed police forces for the deployment. Twenty DCP-rank officials were on duty for better coordination in and around the venue.
As many as 1,000 personnel from local police, anti-drone teams and NSG commandos were deployed for manning overall security, the official added.
The traffic police said restrictions were in place on several routes leading to Ramlila Maidan.
Officials said that it was done to ensure that the protesters demanding the scrapping of the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act were not allowed to reach the venue.
“Commercial vehicles were not allowed from Raj Ghat to Delhi Gate crossing (near Daryaganj). There were traffic restrictions on DDU Marg towards Kamla Market Chowk via Vivekanand Marg.
Traffic was impacted on Barakhamba Road, Tolstoy Road and Ranjit Singh flyover, the advisory said. A number of traffic personnel have been deployed along the route the prime minister will take.
The area around the venue was sanitised, meaning restriction on movement of locals and closure of shops, the police official said..
A multi-level security arrangement was thrown around the Ramlila maidan with CCTV surveillance of all the routes leading to the venue was being monitored. There were snipers perched on building facing the maidan.
Huge cutouts of the Prime Minister Modi, BJP president and Home Minister Amit Shah and working president JP Nadda were put up around the Ramlila Maidan.