Tamil Nadu: 21 Questions to Vijay’s Party

 Chennai: Actor Vijay’s nascent political party, the Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam, is facing hurdles in getting police permission for organizing its maiden State-level conference at Vikravandi in Villupuram district on September 23, Monday, as the police department has raised 21 questions and sought a reply within five days for processing the application.

The venue chosen at Vikravandi was finalized after a long struggle as the party could not identify such a large tract of vacant land in its earlier choice of places like Thanjavur, Salem and Trichy. Even though there were empty grounds lying everywhere, the owners were not prepared to rent them out to the new political party for obvious reasons.

Finally, the over 55 acres of private land in and around a self-financing engineering college in Vikravandi was chosen as it had enough space to accommodate the at least 1.5 lakh party supporters who would be arriving from all over the State for the one-day event, marking the formal launch of the party.

When the application for permission was sent to the Villupuram Collector, he passed the buck to the SP, who happens to be on leave. So, the DSP Suresh, who is looking into the application, wrote to the general secretary of Vijay Makkal Mandram, Bussy N Anand, to clarify 21 doubts in five day.

While Anand is confident of securing permission by providing the details sought by the police, other sources said that the party would move the court if permission was denied as they would not like to delay the conference as the rains could start by October.

Besides asking for proof of all the land owners agreeing to hold the meeting in their property, the police has asked for details on the exact time table with the programme schedule, the list of VIPs invited, number of persons who would be seated on the stage, the names of speakers, the crowd expected with break up on men, women, aged, young and so on and the number of chairs that would be laid on for the audience.

The police also want to know about the festoons and banners that would be put up, the arches erected and who would be responsible for the setting up of the pandal, the sound and light system with details of the authorization they have to undertake such work.

Details of the fire prevention measures that would be in place and the volunteers who would be involved in the management of crowds and the provision of basic amenities to the congregation and VIPs are also sought. The party has been asked to provide details on any march past that they might hold at the venue, the parking arrangements made to accommodate the vehicles that would be coming for the event.

The organizers have also been asked to explain the arrangements made for the supply of drinking water, serving of food, medical facilities and doctor’s team and toilet and other basic amenities at the venue.

Anand is said to have discussed with the party’s legal team the DSP’s letter from preparing the reply, without which the permission could be denied for the grand meeting.

The police are said to be concerned over the traffic snarls that the meeting might cause on the busy national highway, which runs close to the venue. Since the party supporters will be arriving from all over the State at the same time, the arterial highway could be clogged causing major traffic disruptions all over northern Tamil Nadu.

During the recent by-elections to the Vikravandi Assembly constituency, the police had had a tough time regulating traffic on the highway when VIPs were campaigning for their parties with huge fleets of vehicles passing through and hence wanted to be careful about traffic disruptions.