Traffic halted only for 5-10 minutes, Hyderabad CP tells Telangana High Court in counter affidavit.

Source – newindianexpress.com

HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar filed a counter affidavit in the PIL filed by V Somasekhar, an advocate in the city, challenging the alleged excessive action of the traffic police in deterring vehicular movement for ensuring passage of VIPs.

He further informed the Telangana High Court that the traffic movement in the city was being halted only for five to ten minutes at junctions for the safe passage of VIP convoy.

The petitioner had complained that the traffic movement of the commuters was being stopped for more than 20 minutes for the passage of VIP vehicles, thereby causing immense pain to the commuters. On Friday, the petitioner’s counsel Umesh Chandra made a mention before the green bench comprising Justices A Rajasheker Reddy and P Naveen Rao with a plea for an early hearing of the case. The bench said that it would hear the case as per roster and the PIL was expected to come up for hearing next week.

Anjani Kumar, in his counter-affidavit, while denying the petitioner’s allegation of abuse of power by the traffic authorities concerned, submitted that the VIPs face various security threats. Keeping the intelligence inputs in view, the traffic is usually halted for 5-10 minutes at junctions for safe passage of VIP convoy, including that of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, he said. However, sometimes, due to heavy traffic it may take a maximum of 10 minutes in areas like Begumpet, where the chief minister’s camp office is located, he added. 

In case of certain routes, information about movement of VVIP/VIPs is provided to the citizens well in advance by issuing traffic advisory via newspapers and social media, he further said.

Earlier, the said PIL had come up for hearing before the division bench headed by Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan. However, the chief justice recused to hear the case stating that he was one of the beneficiaries of the convoy service. He then directed the registry to place the present case before the green bench for adjudication.