VADODARA: While the
lockdown has brought out the good in police, the uniform is also tainted at times with shades of rudeness sometimes. Such an example was reported in Kapurai Crossroads on Friday, when 120-odd people from Surat were stopped from going to their hometown in Amreli district. Among the lot was a woman who was around 4-5 months pregnant and two small children.
"If you are pregnant, why are you travelling right now? Show me your medical certificates," a cop on Vadodara border allegedly asked, stopping the diamond workers on the highway. Even after an entire day was spent convincing the
cops that they were going to their own hometowns, they reportedly didn't relent and made them sit in a bunch by the
roadside for six long hours, flouting social distancing norm suggested by the government.
"I showed the cops medical papers of my wife Sangita but they argued that there was no need to travel as she wasn't expecting soon. I work as diamond polisher in Surat and didn't want to take any risk by staying back in Surat. So we were on our way to our hometown in Bhavnagar. Our vehicle was detained at about 11am and we were forced to sit by the roadside all day. They didn't even care for the two kids travelling with us," alleged
Mohan Vadadariya.
Vadadariya told TOI that the cops then took their samples for Coronavirus tests.
Jayesh Bhataiya, a resident of Amreli who was also travelling with his family from Surat, alleged that they were not stopped anywhere within Surat, but no sooner they entered Vadodara, their vehicles were detained.
"Cops issued a memo to us and asked us to pay penalty at the regional transport office (RTO). But the RTO is closed due to lockdown. When we asked the cops how can we pay the penalty, they told us to pay when the RTO opens and then take our vehicles," he said.
When asked why the cops made a pregnant woman wait by the roadside for hours, B H Rathod, PSI, Varnama police station said, "She was just four to five months pregnant. They shouldn't have been on the road."
"We detained about 20 vehicles that were moving on the highway amid the lockdown. Some of them were from Surat and Navsari while some were from
Maharashtra. We allowed the people to go later," he said, while defending the action.
When asked where they would stay, Rathod said that the mamlatdar will decide on that.