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Jantar Mantar in Lutyens’ Delhi de-notified as protest site; 3 new venues named
Jantar Mantar as a protest venue has been de-notified, stated a Delhi Police circular on Monday, listing three new venues for holding demonstrations.
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Jantar Mantar in Lutyens' Delhi has been de-notified as a designated protest venue, stated a Delhi Police circular on Monday, while also listing three new sites — spread out across the city — for holding demonstrations.
According to the circular, the Ministry of Home Affairs had constituted a committee to examine alternative proper venues for citizen's right for organizing protest/demonstrations in place of the existing "designated site".
Based on the committee's recommendations, Jantar Mantar as a protest venue has been de-notified, it stated, listing the three new venues.
The 3 new designated protest venues of Delhi
-Ramlila Ground,
-Burari Ground, and
-CBD Ground, in Shahdara, have been designated as new venues for organising protest and demonstrations.
Detailed and revised SOP for organising protest/demonstrations at these three venues will be issued separately, the circular mentioned.
Ramila Maidan, which has a history of hosting agitations, is the closest to Lutyens' Delhi among the three designated venues at a distance of about four kilometres. While the Burari Ground is around 18 kilometres away, the CBD Ground in Shahdara is at a distance of over 12 kilometres from Jantar Mantar.
Jantar Mantar has been the hub of youth-led protests since June this year, led by Abhijeet Dipke-founded Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which ultimately resulted in the resignation of education minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged exam irregularities.
Reacting to the denotification order, Abhijeet Dipke said the entire country will become Jantar Mantar now.
“They have removed Jantar Mantar as a designated protest site. Yes, it’s no a longer protest site as anyway it was turned into a war zone by the coward dictator. Ab poora desh Jantar Mantar banega! [entire country will become Jantar Mantar now],” he wrote on X.
The site came in focus again from last month after an explosive news investigation raised questions against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged election irregularities and gave fresh momentum to Opposition's allegations of “vote chori” (vote theft) under the garb of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.
The Jantar Mantar denotification follows a weekend of mass detentions, including that of several former chief ministers, which the Delhi Police said were preventive to maintain law and order situation in view of the protest calls by several outfits, primarily the Cockroach Janta Party, against CEC Gyanesh Kumar.
According to the investigative report, which has sparked the current calls for protest against the CEC, Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders on the SIR that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation.
