By IANS,
Chandigarh: Security around the private houses of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, union ministers Kapil Sibal, Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ambika Soni in Chandigarh was tightened as Team Anna supporters started their protest here Tuesday coinciding with Anna Hazare’s three-day fast in Mumbai.
The local administration also imposed prohibitory orders around the homes of these VIPs and a few other places, given pro-Hazare protesters had picketed the homes of these VIPs in the city in August when the Team Anna agitation was going on at Delhi’s Ramlila ground.
District Magistrate Bijendra Singh prohibited the assembly of five or more people, taking out processions, making speeches, raising slogans, carrying of lathis within 200 metres of house numbers 727 in Sector 11, 64 in Sector 28, 29 in Sector 5, 79 in Sector 9 and 1309 in Sector 19, for a period of three days from Tuesday.
The maximum security was deployed around the residence of the prime minister in the upscale Sector 11 and around the bungalow of Human Resource Development Minister Sibal’s family house in Sector 5 here. Barricades were also put up near the house of union Parliamentary Affairs Minister and Chandigarh MP Bansal in Sector 28 here and Congress MP and party spokesman Manish Tewari.
“We have deployed security to ensure that protesters do not reach these places and create nuisance there. Except for Mr Bansal, the others do not even live here and only own these properties or have family links,” a senior police officer said here Tuesday.
The prime minister’s house is let out on rent. It is located less than 100 metres from the Sector 11 police station.
Manmohan Singh used to reside in the 1950s and 1960s on the campus of Panjab University here, where he was first a student and later a faculty member in the department of economics. He became professor in the department at the age of 32.
Police here Tuesday detained a few supporters of Hazare for protesting near the cricket stadium roundabout in Sector 16-17. They were taken to the Sector 19 police station and were released later after being presented before a magistrate.