Security beefed up in Madurai for RSS chief's four-day visit

Chennai, July 22 Security in Madurai town and its surrounding areas has been beefed up for the four-day visit of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat to the city. The RSS leader has reached Madurai and will be staying at Sai Nagar for four days till Monday.

Highly placed sources in the Central security agencies told that they have provided information on the necessity for high security in Tamil Nadu for the RSS chief who is a "Z" category protectee of the Union home ministry.

They have warned the Tamil Nadu police about the presence of several Islamic organisations, and that many of them have links with some ultra-left organisations. The central agencies, according to sources, had informed the Tamil Nadu government and home department to provide more security to the RSS chief than what is provided to a "Z" category VIP.

In a related development a Zonal Assistant Commissioner with the Madurai corporation, S. Shanmugham was shunted out from his post following his instructions to fix the street lights on the route of the RSS chief as well as the damaged roads. While the circular was an internal communication, Madurai MP, Su Venkatesan took it to Twitter and demanded an explanation from the Madurai corporation and the district administration.

The order was issued to all zonal officials on July 20 directing them to fix the roads through which the RSS chief would travel as well as the street lights. He also instructed officials to halt all other road renovation work during the scheduled time of the visit.

Bhagwat will be attending functions at the Saibaba Temple in Sathya Sai Nagar in Zone 4 from July 22 to July 26. The central agencies have alerted the state government that several ultra Tamil nationalist groups are active in Madurai and its outskirts as well as some organisations that are banned.

The RSS chief will be meeting some prominent people of Madurai on July 25 and will share the vision of the Sangh and its position on various contentious issues.

Madurai corporation commissioner KP Karthikeyan said that no special arrangements have been made for the visit of the RSS chief.

Karthikeyan told , "We have already relieved the Assistant Commissioner from duty and an explanation has been sought from him for acting unilaterally in the matter."

Central agencies have also taken note of the protests over the visit of the RSS chief. The protests by several ultra-left movements on Twitter have also been taken seriously and the state police have been asked to look out for individuals and organisations that can foment trouble during Bhagwat's visit.