VIJAYAWADA: The city police turned a
Nelson
's eye on Thursday even as hundreds of raucous youngsters and followers brought
Vijayawada
to a standstill to celebrate the homecoming of veteran leader Devineni Nehru and his son Avinash into the ruling TDP.
Sons and supporters of local TDP leaders, college students and followers of Avinash were unstoppable as they vroomed around the city's lanes and bylanes in high-end cars and motorbikes at breakneck speed. Several of them presented a 'Mad Max: Fury Road' show by hanging dangerously from car windows, sitting on the bonnets in gay abandon, balancing on the footboards and hooting and whistling, scaring the living daylights out of commuters and residents on the roads.
Those riding the bikes were no less boisterous and disorderly noisy. Apart from triple riding, several of them pillion-riding were dancing as if there is no tomorrow. Some of the younsters riding supersports bikes performed stunts, kept shouting slogans hailing young gun Avinash, while some indulged in loud honking and burst firecrackers as if it's their birthright.
Terrified denizens simply made way to the unruly mob. All this bravado and drama happened while policemen stood and watched on helplessly.
With bike and car rallies at various places in the city, traffic at major junctions came to a grinding halt or moved at a snail's pace, leaving commuters seething with rage. Scores of vehicles were stranded for several hours at areas like Mogalrajpuram, Labbipet, PWD grounds, Krishnalanka, Yanamalakuduru, Nagarjuna Nagar, Ramavarappadu Ring, Eluru Road, Gunadala, BRTS Road, Satyanarayanapuram, A S Nagar, Chittinagar, K R Market and Police Control Room.
"It was as if their day and nobody existed for them. They showed what they can do with the support of government and how power can go to one's head easily," said a student
S Bhaskar, who had a miraculous escape while crossing the road at Pinnamaneni Polyclinic Road.
A resident of Chittinagar, Parvathi Reddy lambasted the brazen display on the roads, endangering the lives of elderly, women and children. "Several of them were riding bikes in an inebriated condition. They were driving rashly near school zones and temple premises. Cops looked on as if their hands have been tied," she charged.
Another resident pooh-poohed the claims of "friendly policing." "Commissioner of police Gautam Sawang made tall promises on friendly policing, but has utterly failed to control the mobs and gangs moving around freely in the city. Not a single police official tried to stop the rampaging mob," said Nagur Basha, a resident of Labbipet.
Sources said permission was given only for bike rally from
NTR Circle
to Bishop Grassi High School at Gunadala where the public meeting was conducted to welcome Nehru and Avinash into TDP. Leaders from west, central and east segments left no stone unturned to drum up support for Nehru by organising car and bike rallies.
Sawang said they did receive some applications to conduct the public meeting and hold the bike rally from NTR Circle to the high school. But he had no idea on rallies that were organised on Bandar Road, Eluru Road and at Mogalrajpuram. He said serious action will be taken on the violators who conducted rallies without police permission. "We will look into the issue, identify the violators and slap fines and register cases under the Public Nuisance Act," Sawang added.
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