The City Police Commissioner Praveen Sood has ordered an inquiry into the incident where a ambulance was held up for four minutes to allow Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s convoy to pass near Ravindra Kalakshetra on Tuesday night.
Mr. Siddaramaiah and others had gone to the venue to attend Bhagiratha Jayanti programme.
As part of the Standard Operational Procedure, the traffic police cleared the way and stopped all the vehicles to allow the convoy to pass. Among the vehicles stranded was an ambulance, which was struck in traffic for around four minutes.
Reacting to the incident, Mr. Sood said that under no circumstances can an ambulance be stopped. “I have asked for the details about the incident and will take necessary action in case there was any lapse on part of the police,” he said.
According to a senior police officer, the ambulance was heading towards Victoria Hospital from J.C. Road . The CM’s convoy took the left gate adjacent to Town Hall to reach Ravindra Kalakshetra and did not hold up traffic movement from the opposite direction.
“As it was peak hour, traffic movement was slow due to which the ambulance also had to slow down,” the officer clarified.
Not the first time
This is the second incident in less than two months of an ambulance not getting priority on the road. In February, an ambulance with a patient on board was stuck for nearly 30 minutes at a traffic signal near Hoskote to make way for the Chief Minister’s convoy.
In another incident in June last year, a woman reportedly lost her life when the ambulance carrying her was stuck at a traffic signal near Hoskote for almost 25 minutes.
In August 2015, three ambulances carrying patients to hospitals were made to wait in choc-a-bloc traffic for the Chief Minister and his convoy to leave Gayathri Vihar on Palace Grounds after attending a wedding.
