State Home Minister Harsh Sanghvi this morning inspected the security arrangements along the route of Lord Jagannath’s Rath Yatra on foot. The yatra will be held on July 1 this year. Security departments, police, and even crime branch teams are working to ensure that there are no conflicts or clashes, or any other unpleasant incidents during the festival. The key priority is to maintain the safety of the devotees who will be participating in processions.
Several meetings have been held between different departments, senior police officials, and the temple’s management committee. The authorities will be using technology by installing high-class cameras along the way and also using drones. B.S. F has also been kept on stand-by.
Last week, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporations (AMC) Mayor Kirit Parmar reviewed the security arrangements along the Rath Yatra route, which starts from Jagannath temple in the Jamalpur and ends at Saraspur temple.
This year the scenario is extra sensitive what with the Assembly elections fast approaching and political parties sprawling around, campaigning in different districts. That said, police are also likely to take strong precautions in Ahmedabad as the festival of Eid falls just about ten days after the Jagannath yatra. The officials were on high alert, earlier this month while surveying the security arrangements as Al-Qaeda too had threatened to attack India over Nupur Sharma’s controversial comments against Prophet Muhammad.
