Arrangements made for smooth landing of Jagan’s chopper, asserts Kadapa Collector

Collector Sreedhar Cherukuri, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Koya Praveen and Superintendent of Police Nachiket Vishwanath Shelke reviewing the election situation at the control room arranged in Kadapa on Sunday.

Even as former Chief Minister and Pulivendula MLA Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy hurled accusations against the NDA leaders of conspiring to prevent the landing of his helicopter, the government on Sunday clarified that proper arrangements were indeed made to ensure smooth landing of his helicopter, without any hindrance to the ongoing election process.

Kadapa District Collector Sreedhar Cherukuri addressed a media conference along with Joint Collector Nidhi Meena and Superintendent of Police Nachiket Vishwanath Shelke, where he clarified that arrangements for landing of the helicopter was originally made at 12.50 p.m., but it arrived at 9.45 a.m., much ahead of the schedule.

“In view of the advancement in timing, there was apparently a brief disruption in providing pilot, escort and rope party that are mandatory to a Z-Plus category VIP, as the policemen drafted for election duty were already at their respective places of work from 4 a.m. With proper coordination, we made revised arrangements for the chopper landing later,” Mr. Sreedhar explained.

Mr. Sreedhar, the District Election Officer, said polling was conducted in a peaceful manner across the urban local bodies in the district such as Kadapa corporation, Pulivendula, Jammalamadugu, Mydukur, Proddatur, Badvel and Yerraguntla municipalities.

He said no complaint had been received about obstruction of booth agents anywhere in the district, and that 47 agents had been recorded, having secured entry into their respective polling booths in Pulivendula municipality by 7 a.m.

“Some of them left the booths between 11 a.m. and 11.30 a.m.,” Mr. Sreedhar added, appealing to the public not to give credence to social media posts to the contrary.

Similarly, a case had been registered for the reported attack on a national media journalist in Pulivendula town, where his video camera was damaged. Mr. Nachiket said the CCTV and drone shots would be screened to identify the culprits and initiate action.