No more big rallies, says police chief

No more big rallies, says police chief
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Bangalore police have told the high court they will not permit any rally or public meeting if over 15,000 persons are likely to attend.
“As an interim measure following the chief justice’s observation, we won’t allow rallies or public meetings in which more than 15,000 people are expected to turn up. This is related to Section 31 of the Karnataka Police Act,” a statement filed by police commissioner Shankar M Bidari stated.
Currently, there are no orders or rules in Bangalore to regulate public meetings. “Draft rules are being framed before a different division Bench,” Bidari stated.
He also explained steps taken by the police on November 17 when JD(S) held a rally at Palace Grounds. “A thousand policemen from the law and order branch along with 20 KSRP and 10 CAR platoons were deployed. Two DCPs, four ACPs, 20 PIs and 127 SIs were deputed along with 735 constables to look after general issues and traffic,” he explained.
According to him, around 800 vehicles reached the city at 5 pm while the public meeting was about to end. “This created chaos because 4,000 vehicles from Palace Grounds were about to leave, creating a bottleneck,” he stated.
Concerned about how the government and police handled the rally, a division Bench headed by chief justice P D Dinakaran had told authorities to find a solution by December 11 to deal with similar situations.
The PIL related to rallies was filed by Bangalore-based Janaagraha Centre For Citizenship and Democracy. The court had ordered notices to the government, police, BMTC and other stakeholders.
The petitioner highlighted how citizens suffered during the rally and sought guidelines for such activities. “Do not allow any rally in excess of 25,000 people within city limits,” the petitioner had stated.