The Centre pulled out all the stops to make sure that the news of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s death did not lead to any major law and order problem in the State, even if it meant halting the air supply of new currency notes.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) had been roped in to help cope with the currency crisis in the aftermath of the government’s demonetisation decision with several transport aircraft pressed into service to ferry cash to various parts of the country.
As reported earlier, the Centre, anticipating the news, had already made arrangements to airlift 900 Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel from Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Mumbai as soon as they got a formal request from the State government.
Two large military transport aircraft, C-17 Globemaster and IL-76, were mobilised for the purpose.
It was at 9.30 p.m. on December 5 that the State government sent a formal request to the Centre requesting 70 companies (approximately 8,000) of RAF to manage the crowd in case of any eventuality.
The public announcement was made at 12.22 a.m. on December 6 that Jayalalitha had passed away at 11.30 p.m. the previous night.
“To take care of the cash crunch, the C-17 and IL-76 were being used to ferry currency notes from the government printing press at Nashik and Mysuru, as per a request from the Finance Ministry,” said a senior official.
“We decided to divert the planes to airlift the security personnel,” he added.
Another said the requisition for RAF was only for Chennai. The State administration wanted the entire force to be in Chennai to provide security to the funeral procession.
“It was the Chennai police which had made all arrangements. We were there to assist them. The RAF men had formed a ring around the casket as the police feared a stampede-like situation. Around 900 RAF men formed a human wall when the funeral procession started from Rajaji Hall to Marina Beach,” said K. Durga Prasad, Director General, CRPF, which heads the RAF.
“We had already arranged for 10 companies but pulled out some more from J&K to send them to Chennai,” said a senior official.
