Indian Express 05.05.2010
Bathinda MC wants tall buildings guarded to keep protestors at bay
Navjeevan Gopal Tags : protest, corporation Posted: Monday , Apr 05, 2010 at 2258 hrs
Bathinda: Prevention is better than cure. The saying seems to have inspired the Bathinda Municipal Corporation to take preventive measures to combat threats and agitations by protestors who climb atop highrise structures and threaten to commit suicide if their demands are not fulfilled by the government. The MC has asked the owners of a number of tall buildings in the town to ensure that these do not end up as a platform for such protests.In February this year, a teacher in Jalandhar died after she had immolated herself atop a water tank in February this year. Ever since the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal started nurturing Bathinda and Harsimrat Kaur Badal won the Lok Sabha election from here, the town has ended up being the hotspot for various such protests that are ostensibly aimed at exerting maximum pressure on the government for fulfilment of demands.
“The owners of private high-rise buildings will be held liable if anything goes wrong during such protests on their premises. We have issued letters to the owners of a number of such buildings to make proper arrangements to check the entry of protestors,” said Bathinda MC Commissioner Ravi Bhagat. A police team visited our premises recently to oversee the security arrangements. We already have two-tier security, with the guards of City Centre and Big Cinemas keeping a strict vigil to avoid such a scenario,” said S L Garg, project manager of City Centre.
The MC has already erected walls as high as 10 feet around a couple of tall structures managed by it in the city.
