GUWAHATI: The 75th Independence Day celebrations in Assam are expected to be low key due to the overhanging Covid-19 threat. Security has been beefed up across the state to prevent any untoward incident during the celebrations, officials said on Saturday. Maximum alert has been sounded along the international border.
The state-level function will be held at the Veterinary Playground in Khanapara, where chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will hoist the national flag and take the guard of honour. The event will be held on a smaller scale with limited invitees, but with the same zeal, enthusiasm and fervour like previous years, an official said.
Kamrup metropolitan deputy commissioner, Biswajit Pegu, told TOI, “There will be no motor-cycle stunts or cultural programmes. Only 1,500 spectators would be allowed inside. Chairs would be spaced out inside the enclosures in view of Covid protocols.”
The size of marching contingents has also been reduced so that they can maintain social distance. The main programme will be kept short,” Pegu said. The official Independence Day function last year in the city was held at the historic Judges Field here instead of Khanapara due to the pandemic, which was at its peak then.
Final touches were given to the tableaus on Saturday. Surveillance cameras have been placed at all strategic locations. Officers of the dog squad and bomb disposal squad were seen carrying out frisking operations. Vigil has been upped across Guwahati, especially in the Khanapara area.
The city police have clamped Section 144 in the West Police district, thereby restricting assembly or movement of people, agitation, demonstration, procession and shouting of slogans in the entire district, covering key areas under Bharalumukh, Fatasil Ambari, Gorchuk, Jalukbari and Azara police station without prior permission from the competent authority.
Vigilance has been heightened in the districts sharing international borders and inter-state boundaries. The Border Security Force (BSF) has been put on ‘high alert’ along the India-Bangladesh border following inputs of possible security threats on Independence Day from Islamist terrorists based in the neighbouring country and Indian insurgents operating in states sharing the international boundary, a senior officer of the paramilitary force said on Saturday.
