CM Mamata Banerjee pulls over convoy to allow normal traffic along VIP Road in Kolkata

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday got down from her convoy and rebuked traffic cops posted at Teghoria crossing on VIP Road for halting traffic on the service roads and the main thoroughfare to facilitate her convoy to pass smoothly.
The chief minister then asked her convoy to park at the roadside and asked the officers to allow free movement of vehicles. She stood there for a good four and half minutes till normal traffic movement had started on the stretch before leaving the place waving at the crowd that had gathered near her convoy.
The incident happened around 5.45pm on Thursday while she was returning from the airport with her convoy of nine vehicles. Banerjee had been to Chennai to attend a programme in memory of M. Karunanidhi, former Chief minister of Tamil Nadu and the founder of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party. She went there on the invite of current DMK chief MK Stalin last Monday to unveil a statue in his memory.
movement' to stop traffic movement on the main thoroughfares and crossover points to ensure any VIP passing through stretch gets a free passage without the hassle of getting stuck behind vehicles in snarls or slow traffic.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has time and again tried to defy this protocol and has often instructed cops in public to not to hamper traffic movement for her passage. On Thursday, seeing a number of vehicles stopped on service roads parallel to the VIP Road thoroughfare for several minutes to allow her smooth passage, the chief minister asked her convoy to pull over and rebuked the cops.
“She stood there till the traffic cops removed the barricades and allowed free movement of vehicles. She left the area only after traffic movement had normalised,” said an auto driver of route Ultadanga to airport, who was also stuck in the traffic.