Bhopal: Ahead of Congress national president Rahul Gandhi’s Wednesday’s public rally in Pipliyamandi town of Mandsaur district, the state police is equipping itself with everything possible to ensure there is no trouble at the program.
Aiming to keep an expansive watch over the crowd and timely spot and isolate possible troublemakers, the cops are using drone cameras around the venue.
A total of 20 drone cameras which were used for crowd and traffic management during the 2016 Simhastha (Kumbh) at Ujjain have been allotted to cops in Mandsaur district, particularly for aerial monitoring of the ongoing agrarian stir.
These UAVs will keep an aerial view over the crowd in and around the June 6 rally venue.
“The drones have been largely given to keep an eye on the possible wrong doers during the ongoing June 1-10 farmers stir, which had turned violent last year in Mandsaur. Some of these drones which can even read the registration numbers of vehicles will also be used in and around the venue of June 6 program to ensure nothing untoward happens,” said a police officer in Mandsaur.
A sub inspector rank cop Lokesh Gehlot, who is among those tasked with managing the operation of drones in Mandsaur told Disha news that the each drone can capture minutest possible visual details within a radius of up to four kilometers from a maximum height of 500 meters.
“We’ve successfully used the drones for keeping a third eye at 2016 Simhastha and the same will be done here now,” added Gehlot.
The Congress national president will address the public rally which will mark the first death anniversary of five farmers killed allegedly in police firing on June 6, 2017 on the highway in Pipliyamandi town (around 10 km from venue of Gandhi’s program).
Cricket and Tug of War diplomacy in adjoining Ratlam:
In the adjoining Ratlam district, the cops have embarked on a new type of community policing to prevent idle youth’s from becoming part of the ongoing farmer’s stir.
Last year, violence during farmers stir had largely been reported from Mandsaur and Ratlam districts.
A cop had suffered grievous injury in eye when unruly mob attacked on duty cops in Ratlam district after being reportedly provoked by Congress leader DP Dhakad’s and supporters.
The injured cop was airlifted to Chennai for urgent eye surgery.
“Last year many youngsters were misled to join the violent stir by those behind turning the peaceful farmers agitation violent. We don’t want it to happen this time, ” SP Ratlam Amit Singh said on Monday.
Teams of cops are engaging youngsters into sporting activities like cricket and kabbaddi matches and tug of war competitions to improve police public connect.
Also, song and dance competitions are being organised in villages by cops to engage Iske youth in cultural activities.
“We’re also holding career counseling camps in villages to help jobless youngsters know about various job options and how to go for them. At all these events, we’re also educating them on how their life could be ruined it they fall in the trap of those behind last year’s violence,” SP Ratlam added.
The initiative so far has been organised by police in over 16 villages of Ratlam.
