It was only a few days ago that Commissioner Praveen Sood had called the incidents of ambulances being “detained” in traffic as raising “questions about our professionalism in traffic management”. He wrote in a memo on May 5 to senior traffic officials that “providing smooth flow of traffic for VVIP in total disregard to citizens’ inconvenience cannot have any justification.”
The memo comes in the backdrop of reports on May 2 of an ambulance being stuck on J.C. Road after policemen blocked traffic for the Chief Minister’s convoy. It had drawn widespread criticism. Even in mid-February, an ambulance was stuck in Hoskote for over 25 minutes; while in June last year, the situation turned tragic when a woman reportedly lost her life as the ambulance was stuck in traffic held up by a CM convoy for over 25 minutes.
“...whenever an ambulance or emergency vehicle is in question, it should be invariably given priority even at the cost of slowing down the VVIP movement,” said Mr. Sood in the memo.
He even criticised the traffic police for taking “their sweet time in restoring traffic”. “This is not correct. The instructions should be conveyed to all the officers personally to ensure that no emergency vehicle, especially ambulances with patients, are stalled for VVIP movement,” the memo read.
While traffic policemen said they agree with the tone of the memo, in reality it is difficult. “If we spot an ambulance, we ensure it is allowed to go. But often, in these cases, we cannot even hear the sirens of the ambulance if it is stuck in traffic far back,” said an officer.
R. Hitendra, Additional Commissioner (Traffic), said these incidents showed that lower-level officials need to be sensitised on the matter. “These are not intentional stopping of ambulances. Decisions are taken at the spur of the moment and need to be handled with maturity,” he said.
