Shimla: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who was scheduled to visit Shimla and hold a public rally at the Ridge for September 30, stands postponed.
“The visit has not been cancelled, it has only been postponed,” an official spokesman said. However sources revealed that the prime minister, who recently underwent a surgical procedure, cancelled the planned tour on health grounds as he has been advised rest by the treating doctors.
Chief minister Virbhadra Singh on a recent visit to the national capital had been able to get the prime ministers approval for visiting the state capital before the government faces elections, four months down the line. Though the prime minister was only to officially launch a national insurance scheme for the common man but the ruling congress party was expecting more from the visit.
The Ridge Maidan had been dug up and preparations of securing the site for holding a public rally was going on at a hectic pace. Work on a construction site on the Ridge, which had been dug up over six months ago to reconstruct the historic Gaiety Theatre, had been speeded up so that main access to the ridge ground could be thrown open for holding the public rally.
