By IANS,
Chandigarh : As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his cabinet colleagues tackle Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign in New Delhi, their private residences in Chandigarh have been provided additional security with prohibitory orders issued around them.
The additional district magistrate of Chandigarh Monday issued orders prohibiting the assembly of five or more people, taking out of processions, making speeches, raising slogans, carrying of lathis (sticks) within 200 meters radius of the private residence of the prime minister and some of his ministerial colleagues located here.
While the prime minister’s private bungalow is located in the upscale Sector 11 here, other ministers of his cabinet whose bungalows have got the additional security cover include Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni.
Additional security and prohibitory orders have also been issued for the private residence of Congress national spokesman and Ludhiana MP Manish Tewari in Sector 19 here.
While Sibal’s family, including his father and brother live in the upscale Sector 5, Ambika Soni’s bungalow is located in the Sector 9. Pawan Bansal, who is MP from Chandigarh, lives in Sector 28.
Incidentally, all three ministers and Tewari have been directly involved in the ongoing war of words between Team Anna and the government.
Barring the prime minister’s residence, which not many people in the city know about, Anna supporters and anti-corruption activists have pickected the homes of the other ministers in the last one week to show their protest on the Lokpal Bill.
The additional district magistrate issued the order, “keeping in view that certain groups of people are planning to organize rallies, dharnas and resort to other agitational methods that may cause obstruction, annoyance or injury to the persons lawfully employed and endanger human life and property, disturb public peace and tranquility and cause riots”.
The order, which comes into force Monday, will be effective till Aug 25.
Anna supporters have been organizing protests in Chandigarh and other cities in Punjab and Haryana in recent days.