Chaotic scenes at Vigyan Bhavan before Modi's arrival

It was a chaotic scene at Vigyan Bhavan here on Friday as hundreds of people with valid passes, including some media persons, were denied entry to a function on poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar.

Since the function was to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, people were expected to reach the venue half an hour before the commencement of the programme due to security reasons.

The entry of people was put on hold because of non-availability of seats and space inside the main hall of Vigyan Bhavan.

A large number of people turned up for the programme and the authorities took a lot of time in letting them in.

However, when they received information that the prime minister was about to reach the venue, the entry was stopped abruptly to clear the way for Modi.

There were many people, including those who came from places like Lucknow, Ghaziabad and adjoining areas of the national capital, who kept on urging the security personnel to let them in as they had valid passes but were not allowed to go inside.

"My wife and I were at the door of the hall when a security personnel told us to submit our car keys at the gate, as I came out to submit the same I was denied entry on my return whereas my wife was waiting for me inside," one of the visitors to the programme told IANS.

Some people got into arguments with security officials asking them why they were issued passes if there was no place in the hall.

The function was organised to mark the golden jubilee of Dinkar's great works - 'Sanskriti Ke Chaar Adhyaay' and 'Parshuram Ki Pratiksha'.