KCR’s visit keeps police on their toes

He is probably the first Chief Minister to undertake a road journey to Bhadrachalam in the last two decades

In a first in more than three decades, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao travelled by road, covering a 320-km stretch from Hyderabad to Bhadrachalam on Friday night, amid heavy security, to participate in the Sri Ramanavami festival celebrations on Saturday.

Mr. Rao arrived in the temple town, which virtually turned into a fortress, as part of his maiden visit to the district after being sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Telangana.

Rousing reception

He was accorded a rousing reception by district officials and ruling party leaders in the temple town.

Ever since Mr. Rao assumed office last year, he has preferred to fly in the State-owned chopper to visit the districts. But for a change and much to the concern of the police establishment, he decided to travel in the official convoy of high-end SUVs.

Mr. Rao left Hyderabad around 2.10 p.m. and made a 90-minute halt at the residence of Energy Minister G. Jagadish Reddy at Suryapet. Nalgonda Collector P. Satyanarayana Reddy, TRS leaders and district officials called on him. Mrs. K. Shoba, wife of the Chief Minister, along with other family members, earlier visited the Minister’s residence and left for Bhadrachalam, ahead of Mr. Rao’s arrival.

The bullet-proof vehicles of the Chief Minister took five hours to reach Bhadrachalam.

It was widely speculated that the Chief Minister wanted to personally assess the condition of road infrastructure and topography of the predominantly tribal populated Khammam district for his government’s future programmes.

A top police officer told The Hindu that it was almost eight years since Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao had travelled such a long distance. “The idea is to get a first hand feel of the ground reality,” the officer said, adding that Mr. Rao was probably the first Chief Minister in the last two decades to have undertaken a road journey to Bhadrachalam.

“We had deployed police personnel right from Hyderabad to Bhadrachalam. Every vantage place all along the road, including culverts, were sanitised, with uniformed as well as police personnel in mufti guarding the route,” the officer seeking anonymity said.

In all, 2,000 police personnel right from the rank of IGP to homeguard had been drafted for the security arrangements.

Meanwhile, the Bomb Detection Squads have sanitised the entire stretch between Bhadrachalam and Manuguru passing through some erstwhile naxal strongholds in view of the Chief Minister’s tour to Manuguru on Saturday to unveil the pylon for Bhadradri thermal power project.

(With inputs from T. Karnakar Reddy in Nalgonda)