By TCN Staff Reporter,
Lucknow: As the euphoria over the Queen’s baton subsided on Saturday, it was marred with a controversy over its unofficial stay in the Sahara Shaher. District administration terming it as a highly insulting act maintained that only duplicate baton reached Sahara Shaher and the orignal baton has been handed over to the district administration of Raibareilly.
District Magistrate AK Sagar also stated that a letter will be written to the union government besides Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for the misconduct of the Sahara group. “We are contemplating legal action also against them. It is our insult and suitable action will be taken against them,” he said.
The confusion initiated after the Queen’s Baton following a brief ceremony at KD Singh Babu stadium was handed over to the team of Commonwealth games officials for its onward journey to Raibareilly at around 9:30 am on Saturday. The journey started with 30 vehicles in the convoy. As the cavalcade reached Bandariya Bagh crossing near Rajbhawan five vehicles drifted from it and sped towards Gomti Nagar. Sensing the lapse ADM (Trans Gomti) and City Magistrate along with SP (East) too followed them.
After a chase these five vehicles were intercepted near Ambedkar Smarak crossing when they slowed down to take a turn towards Sahara Shahar. The officials immediately surrounded these vehicles as the Queen’s Baton was in one of these vehicles. Three girls and a male stepped out of the vehicles.
One of the girl introduced herself as Congress leader Alka Lamba who is also the Convenor of a sub-committee overlooking relay run. The male also gave his introductionas General Katayan stating that all of them are Commonwealth Games organising committee official. Alka even showed his identity card to the official and insisted that they are heading towards Sahara Shaher.
The official denied that as they are part of the official convoy they will not allowed to move elsewhere. They also explained that Sahara Shaher was not in the iterinary of the relay run. Amidst heated arguements, the girls and their team left the convoy vehicles and took a white car which has arrived by then from Sahara Shaher. They also took the Queen’s Baton along with them in a black bag while the officials were left stranded.
When the information reached senior officials heavy police force was sent to Sahara Shaher. SP (East) Harish Kumar became furious on the driver of the convoy vehicles for breaking from the route.
Meanwhile, in a damage control exercise, District Magistrate (DM) AK Sagar and DIG Rajeev Krishna summoned a press conference at DM’s bunglow. During the press conference, DM AK Sagar remarked: “It was a duplicate baton and the original one has reached Raibareilly as per the schedule. However, I condemn the behaviour of the Sahara group as it is an insult for all of us in Lucknow besides being against the feelings and spirit of commonwealth games.” DIG Rajeev Krishna on his part stated: “It is against the sancity of the games to indulge in such act. The Sahara people will be interrogated as per the requirement.”
DM Sagar maintained that the administration was not aware of any duplicate baton and the organisers too have not sent any such details. “We received only one baton- the original one which has arrived from Uttrakhand. The Sahara people have contacted me earlier for such a function but the request was turned down. Even the commonwealth team which met me few months back did not mention any thing about duplicate baton, This is first time I am hearing about duplicate baton. The orginal one has a GPS installed in it and it confirms its destination”. He admitted that ‘one’ of the baton is still in Sahara Shaher which will fly to Mumbai. “This is duplicate baton and is in the Sahara Shaher along with Alka Lamba and others,” he remarked.
One of the organisers and IOA office bearer, Anandeshwar Pandey meanwhile maintained that he was aware of the duplicate baton but Sahara Shaher was not the destination. “The Sahara people even contacted me but I did not concede. I had handed over the baton to Shruti Menon and Colonel Basu, the main officer bearer of the relay run. Being one of the sponsor the Sahara people somehow managed a duplicate baton,” he claimed.