A home guard and an assistant motor vehicle inspector from Ongole town were made scapegoats for “taking away” the vehicle of a family from Guntur, which was on the way to Tirumala for the darshan of Lord Venkateshwara late on Wednesday night.
The Ongole police on Thursday suspended home guard P Tirupal Reddy and an AMVI A Sandhya following instructions from the office of chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who quickly reacted to the media reports about the cops seizing the vehicle of a family going to Tirupati.
The cops took away the Toyota Innova car of one Vemula Srinivas from Vinukonda of Palnad district, who along with his family members including two children, stopped at a roadside hotel in Ongole town for a quick meal on Wednesday night.
The constable told them that they needed the vehicle for the convoy of the Chief Minister who is scheduled to visit Ongole on Friday. He did not heed to their appeal that they were going to Tirupati on a pilgrimage.
But the constable told the family that he had instructions from the higher-ups to get a vehicle for the CM’s convoy along with the driver.
“I am sorry; I cannot help. I have to follow the orders of the higher officials,” he said and told them that he would return the car only after the chief minister’s programme was completed.
Srinivas and his family members including two women and two children were left stranded on the road. They had to spend the night at the RTC bus stand at Ongole.
When the local media flashed the report about the highhanded behaviour of the cops, the CMO reacted immediately.
A note from the CMO said the chief minister has taken serious note of the incident and ordered action against erring officials who forcibly took away the cab along with the driver.
Expressing his anguish about the incident, he said strict action would be taken against officials if they trouble people for the convoy.
“This kind of measure will not be tolerated especially when people are in trouble,” the official note, quoting the chief minister said.
What surprised everybody was the action taken against a home guard and a woman assistant motor vehicle inspector.
It is obvious that a home guard cannot take decisions on his own and might have definitely assigned the task by his higher officials.
Instead of taking action against the erring higher officials, the police department chose to suspend two lower-rung officials, who have no powers to seize vehicles, let alone mobilising vehicles for the CM convoy.
Well, when rag pickers can steal confidential papers pertaining to an important case in the court, there is no surprise a home guard seizes vehicles for the CM convoy!
