PM visit today, LPU turns into fortress

JALANDHAR: With the Prime Minster, two Cabinet ministers, the Governor and three Nobel laureates all set to congregate at the Jalandhar-based Lovely Professional University on the first day of the 106th Indian Science Congress starting tomorrow, over 3,500 police personnel will be deputed on the campus.

Cops deployed near Lovely Professional University in Phagwara on Thursday. Photo: Malkiat Singh

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 2

With the Prime Minster, two Cabinet ministers, the Governor and three Nobel laureates all set to congregate at the Jalandhar-based Lovely Professional University on the first day of the 106th Indian Science Congress starting tomorrow, over 3,500 police personnel will be deputed on the campus.

While the university has been turned into a fortress, all vends and kiosks on the Jalandhar-Phagwara highway were removed for the PM’s visit.

A team of the Special Protection Force also conducted meetings with senior police functionaries. Traffic remained held up on the highway for long today as cops rehearsed for the PM’s visit. All vehicles were diverted via alternative routes.

Punjab DGP Suresh Arora addressed a meeting of all key police functionaries at LPU today.

Forces from Hoshiarpur will also be deployed for the PM’s visit. Sources said Punjab Police teams from Ludhiana and Amritsar would also come.

As delegations of scientists started arriving today, cops dotted every area and checked every vehicle entering the campus.

More than 30,000 people from all across India and abroad would gather on the LPU campus for the meet.

A special optional helipad has been created on the university campus for the PM’s departure to the Gurdaspur rally in the afternoon.

Around 2 lakh students from across the country are expected to visit the university during the Science Congress.

The venue from where Modi will address the gathering has a seating capacity of 25,000. Over 150 labs from key scientific and research institutions will set up exhibits at “Pride of India expo”.

Nobel Laureates at meet

Prof Thomas C Sudhof — A German-American biochemist known for his study on synaptic transmission. He won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Avram Hershko — Hungary-born Israeli biochemist is a Nobel laureate in Chemistry. Won Nobel in 2004 along with Aaron Ciechanover and Irwin Rose
Frederick Duncan Michael Haldane — British-born physicist is the co-recipient of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics along with David J Thouless and John Michael Kosterlitz