By Pramod G
IMPHAL, July 27: Chief minister O Ibobi Singh and YAS minister N Biren failed to turn up in the final stage of the Manipur Leg of the Queens Baton Relay.

Representatives from local media houses who were invited to the Dinner hosted by the chief minister in connection with the QBR this evening at the 1st MR premise left without having the dinner owing to provocative statement made by Ch Shantikumar, deputy director YAS who is a key member of the organizing committee.

The Queens Baton which have so far covered 1,70,000 kms in around 17 Asian countries is made of 18 carat gold and has GPS system apart from camera and voice recorder.

The QBR has so far covered 12 states in India since its arrival in the country from neighbouring Pakistan on June 27 at Waga border in Punjab.

As its Manipur Leg culminates today, the QBR will be heading for Mizoram tomorrow by air along with the nine member QBR officials was led by Col KS Bansantu, who is the director QBR. Other members of the team were Col Duhan, Ankit Rampal, Shruti Mannon, Nitin Singhal, Akhilendra Singh, Mukesh Saini, Abhinav Lal and Govind Negi.

Interestingly, when the Manipur Leg of the QBR started an official of the QBR namely Col Duhan mistakenly or intentionally handed over the Baton to an unknown lady who was not amongst the list of baton holder after the visiting QBR official had taken the Baton from the first Olympian of the state L Nilakamal, who was first to hold the Baton from the chief minister O Ibobi Singh.

Another unruly scene in Manipur Leg of the QBR was a hot argument between Col Duhan and an international Teakwondo player when the former tried to prevent the later from taking part in the relay. Col Duhan tried to snatch the Baton from the teakwondo player and the later resisted. Col Duhan made his second attempt to handover the baton to the unidentified lady who was accompanying the Army officer and had earlier mistakenly or intentionally handed over the baton in the initial stage.

Another ugly scene seen in today’s relay was disturbances made by some Army personnels to the QBR runners when the relay reaches PCTC oil pump. At this point, some Army vehicles also came along with the runners thereby creating inconveniences to the QBR runners.

The disturbance however was stopped only after one of the runner namely former international swimmer Thouba complained to security personnels, who later prevented Army personnels from taking part in the relay.

Now, the question arises if there were hidden agenda in the absence of the chief minister and his council of ministers in the dinner hosted by the chief minister himself and why the media was made to vacate the venue.