New Delhi, April 26 (IANS) The fifth session of the eighth Delhi Legislative Assembly is scheduled to commence on 11 a.m. on Tuesday in the Assembly Hall at Old Secretariat in the national capital amid heightened security after the recent bomb threats, an official said on Sunday.
“In view of the hoax bomb threat received by the Assembly on April 13, the security agencies have issued fresh guidelines for media persons, prohibiting interactions with MLAs in corridors of the building,” an official statement said.
The reporters have been permitted to interview MLAs and Ministers only in the open area in the forecourt of the Assembly building.
“The media persons are advised to strictly abstain from intervening Ministers/MLAs in the corridors around the Assembly House. They are free to interact with the Ministers/MLAs in the open area of the Assembly complex outside the building,” the Assembly Secretariat said in a statement.
“On April 13, the Delhi Assembly received yet another bomb threat on email, prompting Speaker Vijender Gupta to write to Delhi Police Commissioner Satish Golcha to address the matter permanently,” an official said.
The email, which came after similar threats sent earlier, was received at 11:12 a.m. on the official email ID containing alarming claims about explosives being used inside the Assembly premises.
On March 25, the Assembly received a threatening email message which claimed that as many as 16 RDX-based improvised explosive devices (IEDs) had been planted inside the Assembly premises, with a plan to detonate them at 1:40 p.m. — just before the House sitting. It, however, turned out to be a hoax.
Earlier in another security scare at the Delhi Assembly on April 6, a man rammed through the high-security boundary gates of the complex and managed to flee without being challenged.
He was later identified as Sarabjit Singh. He travelled by car from Pilibhit (Uttar Pradesh) to Chandigarh and then to Delhi, and was driving the vehicle himself.
–IANS
rch/khz