Tirunelveli/Chennai: With some Muslim outfits, as well the DMK working president M.K. Stalin, demanding a ban on the entry into Tamil Nadu of the Ayodhya-Rameswaram Ramrajya Yatra Rath, the state government has clamped prohibitory orders and ordered massive deployment of police to ensure safe passage for the rath when it enters TN from Kerala at Puliyarai near Shenkottai about 50 km from Tirunelveli early on Tuesday.
"We have now promulgated prohibitory order under Section 144 CrPc in the entire Tirunelveli district to prevent miscreants blocking the rath that has been legally permitted passage", Tirunelveli district SP Dr Arun Sakthikumar told DC, before driving off late Monday evening to Shenkottai where more than 900 policemen have been deployed to keep the 'miscreants' away.
District Collector Sandeep Nanduri in his prohibitory order said the SP had reported that the measure was necessary to maintain public peace and tranquility as “even a minor incident in the Rathayathra along the entire route will snowball into a major communal clash with serious impact on the law and order situation”.
Stating that it was “reliably learnt that some miscreants are planning to utilise the opportunity to instigate violence and spread communal tension; which will not be limited to this district only. A serious and grave possibility of public order disturbance, communal clash, danger to public peace and tranquility exists”, Collector Nanduri clamped the prohibitory order through the Tirunelveli district from 6 pm on Monday till 6 am on Friday, March 23.
He said Sree Rama Dasa Mission Universal Society had commenced the Ramrajya Rathayathra on February 13 from Ayodhya, led by its national president Swami Krishnananda Saraswathi. However, Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s organising secretary for Tamil Nadu and Kerala, P.M. Nagarajan told DC that the VHP was in charge of the rath yatra through the two states until its culmination at Kanyakumari on March 23. After entering Tirunelveli district at Puliyarai on Tuesday, the rath will pass through Shenkottai, Tenkasi, Kadayanallur, Puliyankudi, Vasudevanallur and Sivagiri before moving to Rameswaram via Rajapalayam and Madurai.
Again, on March 22, the rath will move to Kanyakumari from Rameswaram through Tirunelveli district, thus keeping the state police virtually on its edge.
