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New Delhi turned into fortress ahead of Obama's visit | Security agencies are taking no chances and an unprecedented ground-to-air security apparatus has been
put in place in the national capital as US President Barack Obama arrives here for a two-day stopper today. President Obama is meeting school and college students
in Mumbai on Sunday morning before his arrival to New Delhi . He will also be
visiting the St Xavier's College, where he will interact with India 's Generation
Next. Obama, who reaches the capital on Sunday afternoon from Mumbai, will have
a busy schedule -- visiting the Humayun's Tomb and Rajghat, meeting Prime Minister
Dr Manmohan Singh and addressing the Parliament before he leaves on Tuesday. It
has been reported that the authorities here have held consultations with their
American counterparts on various aspects of security ahead of President Obama's
New Delhi visit. Security and intelligence officials have already secured and
sanitized the ITC Maurya Hotel in Delhi , where the Obamas' will be staying during
their visit. All routes leading to and out of the hotel have been placed under
surveillance by both American and Indian security and intelligence agencies due
to the high profile visit. The ITC Maurya Sheraton has been made out of bounds
for the public. Snipers have been deployed on rooftops along the route that the
Obamas' will take during the next two days. Places like Humayun's tomb and Rajghat,
the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, which are on the US President's itinerary, have
been closed to other visitors. The security agencies are also ensuring foolproof
security for US First Lady Michelle Obama as she is expected to have her own programme
during the visit. Around 2,000 police and paramilitary personnel will be deployed
in and around the hotel, which had earlier hosted US Presidents Bill Clinton in
2000 and George W Bush in 2006 besides US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last
year. Mock security drills have been carried out at the Parliament, where the
US President will address a joint session on Monday evening. "The arrangements
that we have made for him have been done several times before, when the Pakistani
head of state visited us or when the Israeli Prime Minister had come. There is
no special treatment just because he is the American President," said Satender
Garg, Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic. Obama is the fifth American president
to visit India , the others being D.D. Eisenhower (1959), Richard Nixon (1969),
Jimmy Carter (1978), Bill Clinton (2000) and George W. Bush (2006).
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