JOIN USCoronavirus lockdown: Quick-thinking cop helps save migrants during thunderstorm
Quick thinking and timely action by a police constable helped save the lives of nearly 200 migrant workers stuck inside the Palace Grounds last week.
Authorities had put up about 180 people — migrant workers and their family members, including small children — at Nalapad Pavilion, a wedding venue inside the sprawling Palace Grounds in northern Bengaluru. It was a temporary arrangement until the railways arranged trains to take them home.
The venue is a large, closed shed with a steel fabrication roof. On May 29, as a fierce thundershower trampled Bengaluru, it also brought down a part of the fabrication roof, trapping many workers inside, including women and small children.
Ravikumar G N, a constable from the Shivajinagar women’s police station, who was posted at the venue, quickly rescued those trapped inside. He also stopped many workers from going into the collapsed shed to salvage their belongings. When some workers took shelter outside, a few trees got uprooted.
The constable quickly moved all of them to a safer place within the venue and called the police control room for reinforcements. No one was hurt. Recognising his work, the police top brass decided to felicitate him. Accordingly, a ceremony was held on Sunday where Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao presented him with a cash reward of Rs 10,000 and a letter of appreciation.
A native of Davangere, Ravikumar is an MBA graduate and had topped Kuvempu University in 2016. He taught at a college as a guest lecturer for two years before joining the police in 2019.
“I saw what prayers meant to them when the roof collapsed,” he said. “I also panicked initially but somehow gathered the courage and joined hands with the workers. I’m happy that I could uphold the dignity of my job.”