Plans are afoot to turn the temple town of Bhadrachalam into a fortress by deploying over 1,600 police personnel and 18 special parties, four armed reserve sections and eight CRPF sections, besides bomb disposal squads, for bandobust during Sri Rama Navami fete scheduled for March 26.
The district police have chalked out an elaborate security plan for the ensuing religious fete that draws hordes of devotees from distant places, and a galaxy of VVIPs.
The police have already mounted a strict vigil in the temple town by conducting surprise checks on lodges and bolstering surveillance through CCTV cameras set up at vantage points in the pilgrim centre.
The local police in coordination with the CRPF personnel have intensified vehicle checking operations, particularly on the vital stretch of national highway 30 passing through the temple town to keep a close watch on the movement of vehicles bound for Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.
The police have seized “unaccounted cash” of ₹9 lakh from a Chhattisgarh-based trader during a vehicle checking drive at the check-post in Bhadrachalam on Thursday night.
The police have heightened the security across the Bhadrachalam Agency in the aftermath of a string of violent incidents resorted to by Maoists along the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border recently.
