A Traffic police officer, who is posted at the Trinity circle area in Bangalore was rewarded by the Bangalore police after he decided to stop the convoy of the President Pranab Mukherjee in order to allow an ambulance to pass.
On Saturday, the convoy of the President, who was in the city to inaugurate Bangalore Metro’s Green Line, was heading towards the Raj Bhawan. At the same time Sub Inspector M.L. Nijalingappa noticed that an Ambulance was trying to find way to reach a hospital near HAL.
He acted promptly and gave directions to allow the ambulance to pass through the crowded road. This act of his soon went viral and he was applauded by various citizens:
https://twitter.com/AskAnshul/status/877062973793030144
https://twitter.com/MasterniDidi/status/877070890873180162
It was also noticed by the authorities who proceeded to award and commend him:
https://twitter.com/DCPTrEastBCP/status/876330897443704833
https://twitter.com/CPBlr/status/876307506670092288
Such a step by the police is extremely welcome after the city had earned a notorious reputation for pandering to the VVIPs in the past. There used to be regular reports [1][2] of Ambulances getting stuck in traffic at various intersections in order to allow the convoy of the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiahs to pass.
After a similar incident had again taken place in February, the Chief Minister had assured that such incidents would not be repeated in the future. The promise somehow turned out to be true after after a few days the convoy of the CM was stopped in order to let an Ambulance pass.
Now the incident on Saturday does seem to indicate that the previous incident involving the CM was not a one off tokenism but seems to have resulted in a sincere effort to reform.