SPG AIG arrived in Palatana : Union Petroleum Minister, ONGC CMD and full Board of Directors, CMD IL&FS to attend the Dec 1st OTPC Unit II inaugural program
Amitabha Sengupta
PALATANA / UDAIPUR / AGARTALA, November 27 (TIWN): As part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit on 1st December Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Special Protection Groups (SPG) Manish Sharma arrived in Tripura on Thursday. After arriving at Agartala, AIG SPG Manish Sharma straightway went to Palatana to oversee the preparations of PM Modi's December 1 visit. From now onwards, till the departure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the OTPC plant AIG Manish Sharma will be supervising the security measures in Palatana. Along with Manish Sharma, DIG Southern Range Uttam Kumar Majumder, DM Gomati, SP Gomati, SDPO Udaipur, PWD Chief Engineer (Road & Building) Sunil Bhowmik also visited OTPC this afternoon. They arrived at Palatana sharp at 4.25pm. Earlier at 11.15am SPG AIG Manish Sharma arrived at Agartala Airport by AI-743 flight. From Agartala Airport SPG AIG went to meet with the high level state police officials.
After arrival, SPG AIG ,DIG Southern Range went to Palatana by road along with the PWD Chief Engineer (R& B). After arriving at Palatana SPG AIG, DIG Southern Range went straight to the Helipad site. There DM Gomati, SP Gomati, SDPO Udaipur met high officials and supervised the preparations of the inauguration site from where the Prime Minister will dedicate the Unit-II of OTPC Palatana plant to the nation. A highly placed source in the PMO informed this correspondent on Thursday evening ," At 1230 HRS Prime Minister Narendra Modi will depart from Dimapur Airport by IAF BBJ and arrive at Agartala Airport at 13.30 HRS. The PM will take lunch on board. At 1335 HRS PM, Modi will depart Agartala Airport by MI-8/17 Helicopter and will arrive Palatana Helipad at 1400 HRS. And from the Palatana Helipad PM will reach the Venue of the Inaugural Function at 14.10 HRS . At 1410 HRS PM will dedicate the Unit-II of ONGC Tripura Power Company Ltd. Power Plant to the Nation. "
The sources also added that the inaugural program will be exactly one hour duration when PM, Modi will address a gathering of 50,000 people in the project area. After the program PM will leave from the venue of the function at 1515 HRS by road and arrive at the heliport at 15.20 HRS. At 1525 HRS the MI-8/17 Helicopter of the PM will depart from Palatana and arrive at Agartala Airport at 1550 HRS. According the sources at 1600 HRS Prime Minister Narendra Modi will leave the state by IAF BBJ. By 1915 HRS PM will reach the Delhi Airport. The PMO sources also told TIWN," Details of the PM program have been communicated to the Chief Secretary, DGP, IGP (Int/Security), Secretary (GAD/Protocol), DD, SIB and SP (SECURITY) from the New Delhi (Director SPG) by AIG SPG Bhupinder Singh on 25th November. Ahead of PM Modi's visit a team of 19 SPGs including AIG SPG Manish Sharma, 17 SPG Officers including one Lady Security Officer, SSO Gautam Sharma have already in the state. Two more SPG officers will arrive at Agartala on 30th November. SSO Gautam Sharma along with four SPG officers will be in command at the Agartala Airport on the day of PM visit.
Speaking to TIWN on today's visit DIG Southern Range Uttam Kumar Bhowmik said," Regarding the overall situation right now I can say that preparations are in satisfactory note. Already the SPG team has arrived and taken control over the plant area. Gomati District and Police administration are doing their jobs as per SPG instructions. We are just waiting to welcome our Prime Minister for this historic event."
Meanwhile ONGC Tripura Asset Manager/General Manager V K Mahawar told this correspondent over phone on Thursday night," Along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Oil & Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, ONGC CMD D K Sarraf, Infrastructure Leasing and Financing Services(IL& FS) CMD Shahzaad Dalal, ONGC Full Board of Directors comprising A K Banerjee( Director, Finance), Ashok Verma( Director, Onshore), S Shanker ( Director, T & SS), D D Mishra( Director, HR Division) and T K Sengupta( Director, Offshore) have already consented to remain present during the inaugural programme. We have also invited former BHEL CMD P Prasada Rao ,ONGC CMD Sudhir Vasudeva and former Tripura Chief Secretary S K Panda but no confirmation have so far been received from the other end. However, we hope that the details of the visit of them and other dignitaries will be finalized by Friday evening."
A highly placed TIWN sources in the PMO informed told TIWN," As of now bit is highly unlikely that the PM will have any courtesy meeting with the state cabinet or attend any tea party." Earlier on Wednesday Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said in the press meet that returning from Palatana the Prime Minister will have a short courtesy meeting with the state cabinet. On Wednesday ICA Minister Bhanu Lal Saha too told TIWN," PMO has consented to attended the tea party in the state secretariate to be arranged in honour of the Prime Minister. " But regarding the other that have been proposed from the state govt no confirmation has been given yet. ICA Minister said," The concerned departments of the Union Ministry communicated that at this moment it is not possible for the Prime Minister to attend these programmes due to his extremely hectic schedule. Only the PM will come to the state to inaugurate the dedicate the OTPCs Palatana plant to the Nation ."
A highly placed sources said that SPG DIG M P Gupta is scheduled to arrive in Tripura on 29th November. But if the schedule changes DIG SPG will come on 30th November.
Sanjay Majumder
Anirban Mitra