An ambulance carrying a critical patient got stuck in a traffic jam for about five minutes in Odisha’s capital of Bhubaneswar as a result of Naveen Patnaik’s passing convoy, OTV has reported:
#WATCH: Ambulance Priority or CM’s Carcade?: An ambulance carrying a critical patient stuck up for 5 minutes in traffic to give way to CM Naveen Patnaik’s carcade in #Bhubaneswar #Odisha pic.twitter.com/7QDLTJD2Pi
— OTV (@otvnews) July 9, 2018
In the above video it can be seen that an ambulance is trying to pass through a stretch of traffic purportedly created due to the CM’s convoy, while the patient’s well wishers anxiously sit inside the vehicle.
Following the incident, CM Patnaik was attacked by Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee’s president Niranjan Patnaik, who claimed that the feudalistic mindset of the CM was on full display.
Incidentally reports of medical patients suffering due to convoys of Chief Ministers are nothing new.
It was famously reported on multiple occasions [1][2] how ambulances got 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 2017, the Chief Minister had assured that such incidents would not be repeated in the future.
All hope though is not lost in this regard as in July of last year, it was reported how a Bangalore cop had been rewarded for stopping the convoy of erstwhile President Pranab Mukherjee, in order to allow an ambulance to pass.
