Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy is never short of occasions to announce grandiose welfare schemes for the state and its people. He makes the best of whatever the event to win brownie points for himself and his government.
But to be fair the man has kept two of his pre-election promises, free bus rides for females on State Transport Corporation Busses and turning the royal Darbar of the former BRS Chief Minister, Chandrashekhar Rao’s Pragati Bhavan to Praja Bhavan uprooting the formidable Guantanamo style security fences enabling the common person to have an easy access to his office.
However, one directive that he issued in the public’s interest, of doing away with the earlier practice of stopping traffic on routes he travels to ensure smooth and unhindered traffic flow so that people should not be inconvenienced is yet to be implemented fully.
Don’t stop traffic for my convoy: Telangana CM Revanth—headline of a report in The Hindu of 15th December 2023. The number of vehicles in his convoy has been cut to nine from 15. Yet there is heavy police bandu bast whenever the CM is on the move. Not a mouse can pass by when the CM’s motorcade is zipping across.
The chief minister’s decision to forgo the privilege of ‘zero traffic protocol’ for his convoy was put to the wind by the traffic police on Wednesday evening when it cordoned off streets leading to a certain address in MLA Colony Banjara Hills the CM was invited privately to.
A wave of excitement swept across the vicinity as news spread that the arrangements were for the people-friendly CM known to give ear to the people’s vows to visit the neighborhood. But that excitement gave way to despair, and despair to anger and anger to frustration when the police cordoned off the streets leading to the venue for several hours. Many who had homes near ground zero were made to leave their cars and walk home, despite pleading their homes were just around.
MLA Colony is an upscale residential area, a couple of MLAs, MPs, government officials, retired judges, and businesspeople have homes here. In some cases, ladies and children were made to walk the distance to their homes, leaving their vehicles at temporary check posts. There was no reason or cause for the police to go into overdrive and keep the arrangements protracted till 11 PM. Such uncalled security measures on private visits by staff make the P in the Praja CM silent making it RAJA . One can understand and endure the discomfort of the aftermath caused by the speeding motorcade of Revanth Reddy on official errands.
