Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden public meeting in Madurai on Sunday, the police have put in place elaborate security arrangements, deploying around 5,000 personnel around the venue in Mandela Nagar.
The Prime Minister will address an official meeting after laying the foundation stone for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Thoppur and inaugurating a slew of buildings and schemes in the State.
Later, he would address a public meeting organised by the BJP at the Vajpayee grounds. Both the meetings are being organised at the same venue in Mandela Nagar, along the Inner Ring Road, with separate stages. Around 1,000 invited guests would be taking part, a police officer said.
Police sources said Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Vijay Kumar held a preliminary meeting on security arrangements here on Thursday with Inspector Generals of Police Gupta (Special Protection Group), S. Davidson Devasirvatham (Commissioner of Police-Madurai City) and K. Shanmuga Rajeswaran (South Zone).
A team of the Special Protection Group is closely monitoring the arrangements. “We will have a four-layer security [arrangement] at the airport and the venue,” Mr. Shanmuga Rajeswaran said. Anti-sabotage checking and frisking had been intensified at the airport, he added.
Two Deputy Inspector Generals of Police, 16 Superintendents of Police and 50 DSPs would be deployed for the Prime Minister’s visit. The PM will arrive at the airport in an Indian Air Force aircraft in the morning and come to the venue by road. He would leave Madurai in the afternoon.
With the MDMK and a fringe group announcing a black flag demonstration against the PM, the police are not leaving any stone unturned.
