An ambulance was held up for around 15 minutes on Queen’s Road as the police blocked traffic for facilitating the movement of Home Minister G Parameshwara’s convoy on Monday.
It was hardly a week ago that the police commissioner Praveen Sood ordered his men to prioritise right of way for ambulances and emergency vehicles over VVIP/VIP movement.
After a meeting at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office on Queen’s Road, traffic policemen blocked the busy road to allow G Parameshwara’s convoy to pass. Meanwhile, an ambulance that was headed towards Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital was stuck in the traffic.
Sources said that the ambulance was ferrying a 60-year-old patient, who had suffered a heart attack, from a private hospital. The ambulance was stuck in traffic between 11.30 am and 11.45 am according to eyewitnesses.
It was only after the convoy moved out that the policemen allowed the traffic, including the ambulance, to pass through, they said.
The police commissioner had asked his men to accord priority for ambulances over VVIP movements in the wake of the reports that an ambulance was stuck on JC Road on May 2 when the chief minister’s convoy was on its way to Ravindra Kalakshetra.
“We are following the police commissioner’s order. But in this case, our men neither heard any siren nor there was any clue about an ambulance in the traffic as it was far off. Our men will be closer to the area where the convoy movement happens,” said Shobha Rani, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) West.