Ambulance halted for Naidu’s convoy

Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi grandly coining the new phrase of ‘Every Person in Important’ and phasing out red beacon cars, the VIP culture refuses to leave the Indian political system. Be it Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah or West Bengal minister, who opposed the end of red beacon, the VIP tag is inherent to their power.

On Friday, the Andhra Pradesh police went a step further and allegedly stopped an ambulance, which was ferrying a patient to a hospital, for about 20 minutes to allow smooth passage to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s convoy at Kakinada in East Godavari on Thursday.

The Chief Minister visited Kakinada to take part in the closing ceremony of Nava Nirmana Deeksha programme and addressed a public meeting. After the meeting was over, he was heading to Rajahmundry airport to board the special flight to go back to Vijayawada.

At about 8 pm, as his convoy of vehicles was moving, an ambulance carrying a patient was trailing the convoy and it was supposed to cross the road at an intersection. However, the traffic police stopped it as it would come in the way of the convoy. The ambulance was allowed to pass the intersection only after the convey left the place.

East Godavari SP M. Ravi Prakash denied stopping the ambulance for 20 minutes. “We stopped ambulance just for two minutes as its passage would come in the way of the CM’s convoy at the junction. We are not allowing any vehicle to stop for more than five minutes during the passage VIP’s convoy,” the SP explained.