Guj Additional Chief Secretary visits tense areas of Vadodara

, Aug 31:

Additional Chief Secretary (Home) S K Nanda today visited Fatehpura and Bavmanpura localities here, a day after tension gripped the areas due to clashes between members of two communities.

Nanda visited the affected areas with senior police officials, including city Commissioner of Police (CP) E Radhakrishnan, and asked them to maintain law and order in the city during the ongoing Ganesh Chaturthi festivities.

"To find out the ground situation here, I visited these places and held a meeting with police officials. I have asked the police commissioner to deploy senior police officials who are well versed with these sensitive localities, to tackle the situation in future," said Nanda to PTI.

On late Wednesday night, clashes between two groups turned violent after they pelted stones at each other in these communally sensitive areas, which forced the police to fire tear gas shells to control the situation.

Nanda's visit here is also being seen in the light of the commencement of election campaign from Monday for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat bypolls. To keep a strict vigil on each and every movement, Radhakrishnan said that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) would be used by city police. From Monday, we will deploy two UAVs to keep a watch in these localities.

In addition, two more companies of the State Reserve Police and the Rapid Action Force will be deployed in the city," he said.

PTI