Zero traffic for home minister: Cops get notice

HUBBALLI: Police commissioner M N Nagaraj has issued a show-cause notice to an assistant commissioner of police and inspectors for allegedly providing zero traffic to home minister M B Patil during his visit to the city on Wednesday.
Though Patil had instructed higher officials of the department not to provide him zero traffic during his travel, the city traffic police allegedly provided him the privilege. Some sections of the media aired the report that the minister travelled in the city with zero traffic, causing immense inconvenience to commuters.

In a statement, Nagaraj said police did not provide the home minister zero traffic while travelling in the city. But the traffic police stopped vehicular movement near Basaveshwar Nagar Cross and at railway over bridge near Desai Cross where road repair works were on and allowed the minister’s vehicle to pass through these stretches, he said.

Nagaraj has issued sh ow-cause notice to traff ic ACP M V Naganur, East traffic inspector Sripad Jalde and North traffic inspector Srikant Totagi seeking clarification as to why they had stopped t he movement of vehicles.

The commissioner also said police will not provide the home minister zero traffic in the twin cities in the future also.

Last week, police provided minister C S Shivalli zero traffic during his bike rally in the city. This resulted in severe traffic jam at various places in the city.