An enquiry has been ordered hours after a breach in VVIP security of BJP national President J P Nadda in Himachal Pradesh on Sunday when families of agitating police constables attempted to stop his motorcade in Bilaspur. Some of the protesting family members have since been booked under criminal charges.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Ashok Tewari has been asked to hold an inquiry and submit a report within two days to fix the responsibility regarding the violation of the security guidelines.
Videos of protesting families trying to block the motorcade of Nadda had gone viral on social media on Sunday in what could be a major embarrassment for the BJP government in the state. Nadda was also flanked by two union ministers -- Anurag Thakur, who also hails from the state and Mansukh Mandaviya, apart from Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur when the incident happened.
Advertisement
The family members were holding placards. Some of them were later detained for obstructing the motorcade of Nadda.
The DGP has also called the explanation of the Superintendent of police (Bilaspur) SR Rana relating to the breach of the security and how the protesting families managed to reach up to Nadda, stopped his motorcade and also accosted him.
Nadda had reached Bilaspur, his home town, for an event commemorating Himachal Pradesh becoming a fully vaccinated state with 100 per cent eligible population vaccinated with both doses of vaccine. The event was also dedicated to declaring the setting up of a new OPD in AIIMS.
Advertisement
While on his way, Nadda had to face agitated family members of the constables who have been protesting for equal wages and service opportunities and regularisation of their jobs within two years of their recruitment as had been done in case of other government employees. As of now, constables recruited after 2015 have to serve an eight-year mandatory service period to become eligible for regular services and higher pay bands.
Compelled by the action of families, DGP on Sunday set up a four-member committee headed by A P Singh, IGP to look into the grievances of the constables about the denial of equal wages. The committee has been told to submit its report within a week’s time.
Confrontation within the police constabulary has been growing for quite some time after hundreds of constables had marched to the Chief Minister’s residence on November 28 and staged a silent protest, which was another incident of major security lapse in state capital Shimla.
(Edited by Rakhi Bose)
