Imphal, October 16: Officialdom snubbed a horde of reporters who were escorted up to Mao by the Government to cover the visit of President APJ Abdul Kalam.

What is more the passes issued by the SP of CID (Special Branch) to the reporters after the formality of checking their credentials were finalised days earlier were not respected by his own men at Mao today, leaving the reporters a flustered lot.

The reporters from Imphal based newspaper establishments had gone to Mao following invitations from the Directorate of Information and Public Relations.

They were also armed with the passes which were verified by the SP of CID (Special Branch).

The media team was in for a rude shock when they were brusquely told by personnel from the CID that they could not proceed from the point where the President was to be accorded the reception by the DC of Senapati.

Even the cameraman and reporter deputed by the DIPR were not allowed to proceed beyond the said point.

However some other individuals, not from the media, but who were armed with cameras were allowed to enter.

In an interesting turn, the CID staff soon realised that the media team had in fact come to cover the President's programme and the gate was thrown open to the media persons.

However the peeved reporters "lauded their security arrangements" and turned down their "invitation." The reporters from Imphal stayed put at some other place waiting for the programme of the President to get over.

The people of Mao on the other hand rolled out the red carpet to the President and greeted him with a soulful rendition of Sare Jahan Se Accha...

The President also interacted with the children of the area and went past a security cordon to greet and shake hands with children and exchange greetings.

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