The ghastly road accident on the Nehru Ring Road near Shamshabad late on Friday which claimed the lives of eight people, including two children, raises serious doubts about the effectiveness of police patrolling and checkposts in the State during the 21-day nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.
The maxi truck came in from Raichur in Karnataka, crossing a State border, and was returning with 31 labourers, when a speeding lorry crashed into the vehicle and caused eight deaths. While complaints about police high-handedness and free-wheeling baton charge in the capital city are still trickling in, it appears that police vigilance ends at city limits.
The goods vehicle started from Suryapet around 6 p.m. and crossed at least ten temporary police barricaded checkposts in Suryapet, Nalgonda district, and Rachakonda Commissionerate during night curfew from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. - announced by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to restrict people’s movement on road.
Role of subcontractor
According to the police, Ashok, a subcontractor with DRMS Road Engineering firm, arranged the vehicle from Raichur to ‘illegally’ send back the migrant workers and their families.
“Driver Hanuma Gowda reached Suryapet on Friday afternoon after obtaining a permission letter from Raichur police to bring workers to the home town in Raichur and Yadgir districts,” a police officer unwilling to be named said. He said that the mini-van was stopped at two checkposts in Suryapet and was let off after women and children in the vehicle repeatedly requested the police officers. “Though rules won’t permit, officers deployed at checkposts allowed them to go on humanitarian grounds when the curfew was on,” the officer told The Hindu . Meanwhile, Amaresh, a migrant labourer who survived the ghastly accident said that they wanted to go back to their village as there was no work in Suryapet. “We came here to earn money. How can we survive without money?,” he asked. When asked on how they managed to escape police checking, he said that Hanuma Gowda got police permission from Karnataka and when the vehicle was stopped for checking, all women and children used to get down and plead with the police officials.
