Parivartan yatra route was not changed: Cong

Asks why govt pulled paramilitary forces one week before naxal attack
 

Raipur, May 28, 2013

Dispelling doubts that route of parivartan yatra was changed in the last minute when Congmen left for Darbha from Sukma on May 25, 2013, Congress on Tuesday made it evident that the route was prescheduled. 

“It was decided much earlier that the yatra would reach Kesloor from Sukma via Koknar, Tongpal and Darbha. In this route, the local partymen had done preparations to welcome the yatra,” said Congress spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi while talking to scribes at Congress Bhawan. 

“First, DCC Bastar president Lakheshwar Baghel and others welcomed the yatra at Koknar and then BCC president greeted the yatra at Tongpal. The local partymen in Darbha were also waiting to welcome the yatra but the incident took place in the meantime,” he said.

“There party had never planned to reach Kesloor via Dantewada as is rumoured now in wake of naxal attack on our leaders. In fact, it would have been a longer distance as compared to the prescheduled route,” he added.

Flaying the government for not providing security to the Congmen during parivartan yatra, he asked when the former had pressed security personnel at different locations during Congress manthan camp on February 12, 2013 in Bijapur then why it did not do the same when large convoy of Congress leaders was returning from Sukma. 

He said the government should clarify why it pulled paramilitary forces from Darbha region one week before May 25 naxal attack on Congress convoy when it had received inputs from intelligence regarding Maoists’ movement in the area.

He said the government should tell the number of security personnel it had pressed for its vikas yatra and Congress parivartan yatra. 

He further pointed that the government did not ensured Patel’s security despite naxal attack on his convoy on July 20, 2011. 

To a question pertaining to different types of doubts being raised on attack, he said the national investigation agency (NIA) would expose all the facts. 

On the occasion, Trivedi was accompanied by PCC general secretaries Subhash Sharma, Bhupesh Baghel, party spokespersons Mahendra Chhabda, Sushil Anand Shukla and DCC Raipur urban president Inderchand Dhariwal.