Mahanadu, the three-day mega event of the Telugu Desam Party, turned out to be a success, as it largely remained incident free.
In the words of TDP national president and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and N. Chandrababu Naidu, full credit should be given to the local leaders and volunteers in particular who toiled day and night not only during the event but even before. He lauded the efforts of the volunteers, especially those who worked under the Paryavekshana Committee, in crowd management.
“It is not easy to manage a crowd of over 20,000 and we put in a lot of effort. We hand-picked about 500 volunteers, including 150 women, and trained them for the event,” said MLA P.G.V.R. Naidu (Ganababu), who is the convener of the committee.
The media, food and hospitality committees too rose to the occasion. Over 1,200 volunteers were on the job, said media committee convenor Bandaru Satyanarayana.
Advance planning
The exercise for the selection of volunteers was taken up a couple of months ago, and every member was selected as per his/her preference and strength.
“As it was for the party, we put our heart and soul into it,” said Girish, a volunteer from the food committee.
Mr. Ganababu said meticulous planning and discipline among volunteers helped in managing the surging crowds.
24 groups
“The volunteers were divided into 24 groups with 20 members in each team headed by a leader. Besides, two groups were kept ready to meet any exigency. These groups worked directly under my supervision,” he said.
The volunteers were not the only silent workers, the others who sweated it out were the police.
Over 3,000 police personnel were on their toes on all the three days, braving the sweltering heat.
The 500-odd force that was assigned traffic duty worked in two shifts. Handling over 5,000 four-wheelers and over 7,000 motorcycles, and giving clearance to over 400 VIPS and VVIPs during peak hours was a challenge. Except for some minor traffic snarls on the first day, the traffic management was incident free, said ADCP (Traffic) K. Mahendra Patrudu.
The personnel who really looked stressed out, both physically and mentally, on the concluding day were the men who were on security duty. “The threat perception remained constant at the back of our mind for the three days. Many of the officers practically went without sleep. Planning, deployment and last-minute operational changes kept us on tenterhooks. But we are trained for such operations,” said a senior IPS officer.
