Both athletes and administrators, taking part in the 3rd Andhra Pradesh junior athletic meet at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation Stadium were in shock on Saturday, the concluding day, as police officials swarmed the venue asking them to vacate the ground.
Citing the arrival of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu from Hyderabad by helicopter at noon, they asked them to stop the on-going events and move out of the stadium as a security measure.
“We explained the officials the difficulty in sending all the athletes away from the stadium which will put them to difficulty. Finally they instructed the athletes to stay indoors and not to roam around as the CM comes under ‘Z’ category,” said AP chief athletic coach Vinayak Prasad.
After three hours of frustrating wait, the police officials appeared around 12 noon to announce the cancellation of the CM’s helicopter ride and asked them to continue with the proceedings.
The private and Government functions and Chief Minister’s helicopter hops were the bane of the sports activities at the stadium and until the temporary capital was completed and became functional at Velagapudi, the disturbances were bound to happen, felt Special Chief Secretary to Sports and Tourism L. V. Subrahmanyam during the inaugural function of the meet.
