BSP rally clears HC hurdle after govt’s assurance

Chief Secretary Atul Kumar Gupta,Lucknow District Magistrate Anil Kumar Sagar,Lucknow SSP/DIG Rajiv Krishna,ADG (Law and order) Brij Lal,UPSRTC Managing Director Pankaj Agarwal and divisional managers of Northern and Northern Eastern Railway also appeared before the court.

The Bench had summoned the officials to explain the steps they had taken to prevent the disruption of normal life in view of the rally. Two petitions had been filed challenging BSP’s decision to hold a rally on March 15. While one is against the rally being held on a working day — which also coincided with school Board exams — the other appealed that normal life would be thrown out of gear if the BSP was allowed to bring 25 lakh people into the city.

Trivedi assured the Bench that steps had been taken to ensure that there was no restriction on the movement of the people — no roads were blocked and access to hospitals,railways stations,bus stations,airport,private offices and work places remained free. Students,teachers and parents would not face any difficulty in reaching educational institutions and examinations scheduled for the day would not be hampered,he added. The students would not even face any difficulty in reaching those institutions which are in the vicinity of the rally ground,Trivedi said.

He also told the court that buses which will bring people for the rally will not enter the city,and would be parked in such a manner that it will not disrupt traffic movement.

In regard to arrangement made at the railway stations,the divisional railway managers of Northern and Northern Eastern Railway assured the court that necessary precautions had been taken to ensure that those coming to the city do not face any difficulty and that no untoward incident takes place because of the gathering of such a large number of people. Arrangements had also been made to issue tickets and properly frisk the participants.