KARIMNAGAR: The Karimnagar police on Wednesday granted permission to the Congress to hold its public meeting at the Ambedkar Stadium as part of TPCC president A Revanth Reddy’s Haath Se Haath Jodo Padayatra, albeit with 23 conditions.
The Congress planned to hold a massive public meeting, with at least 50,000 people, to mark the decision of the then AICC president Sonia Gandhi to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh. The Telangana Congress had invited AICC secretary Jairam Ramesh and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bupesh Baghel to attend the meeting.
However, Karimnagar police on Wednesday told the party that it has to limit the number of attendees to merely 15,000. Stating that the stadium’s capacity was only 15,000, the police said that a bigger crowd could increase the chance of a stampede.
The police also prohibited DJ sounds and firecrackers, and said that the public meeting should be held only between 4 pm to 8 pm. The police also prohibited processions and any disruption to traffic. Moreover, the party was instructed not to use drone cameras, and they were required to install CC cameras at their own expense. The police warned the Congress leaders that the permission would be cancelled immediately if they disrupted law and order during the meeting.
Notwithstanding the restrictions imposed by the police, former Karimnagar MP Ponnam Prabhakar and DCC president Kavvampalli Satyanarayana called upon party activists to make the public meeting a success.
Big crowd can cause stampede, say cops
Stating that the stadium’s capacity was only 15,000, the Karimnagar police said that a bigger crowd could increase the chance of a stampede.