Swiss embassy lauds police gesture toward attacked couple

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh police’s “get well soon” campaign on social media, with the hashtag #Gwsmarieandjeremy, for a Swiss couple attacked by a mob in Fatehpur Sikri has garnered appreciation from the Swiss embassy, a top official said on Friday.

Messages received on micro-blogging site Twitter with the hashtag were compiled into a 76-page booklet and presented to the Deputy Head of Mission, Swiss embassy, Tamara Mona, and MEA spokesperson Ravish Kumar in New Delhi. It was on Friday released to the media by the UP Director General of Police Sulkhan Singh.

“After the attack on the couple, the state police not only swung into action and arrested the accused but also started a ‘Get well soon’ campaign, under which people were asked to use hashtag #Gwsmarieandjeremy to send their wishes to them,” Rahul Srivastav, PRO to the UP DGP, said here.

Both the Swiss embassy and the MEA have appreciated the gesture calling it one of the first such attempts by any force in the world, Srivastava said, adding that newspapers in Switzerland have published the same prominently.

The Swiss couple, who was attacked last month in Fatehpur Sikri, about 40 km from Agra, was offered a free twonight stay at a five-star hotel in New Delhi as a “token of concern” by Tourism Minister K J Alphons.

On October 22, Marie Droze and Quentin Jeremy Clerc, from Lausanne in Switzerland, were strolling near the railway station in Fatehpur Sikri -- a city founded by Mughal emperor Akbar in the 16th century and a major tourist attraction -- when they were chased and attacked with stones and sticks by a group of four youths. They later told the media that bystanders made videos on their mobile phones as they lay on the ground bloodied and bruised. PANAJI: Amid the growing concerns over air pollution, the Goa government is planning to encourage people to use bicycles to move around in the state’s capital city.

In this regard, it is planning to tie-up with a private company for operating bicycles, fitted with the Global Positioning System (GPS), on rent.

Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said the environment-friendly conditions cannot not be created overnight in the state and the people will have to work for it.

“We are encouraging buses running on bio-fuel. But it does not happen overnight because it requires a lot of capital cost. In the same way, the best way to reduce it (pollution) further is to use a bicycle,” he told reporters here. “You can use a bicycle to go to the market. What we have done is we are tying-up with a firm for operating bicycles. We will only give them places where the bicycles can be parked,” the chief minister said.

Both the Swiss embassy and the MEA have appreciated the gesture, calling it one of the first such attempts by any force in the world