HVK Archives: The police did a marvellous job the night the city was plunged in darkness
The police did a marvellous job the night the city was plunged in darkness - The Afternoon Despatch & Courier
Nozer Balsara (Letter)
()
12 March 1997
Title : The police did a marvellous job the night the city was plunged in darkness
Author : Nozer Balsara (Letter)
Publication : The Afternoon Despatch & Courier
Date : March 12, 1997
The blackout in Maharashtra on February 28, while Finance Minister
P Chidambaram was presenting the Union Budget, saw the Mumbai
police at their very best. No sooner had the city plunged into
darkness, than the local police's presence was felt on the roads,
in wireless vans, in traffic police jeeps, on motorcycles... urging
the traffic to move along at a brisker rate, coaxing pedestrians to
keep to the footpaths, and generally giving the common man the
impression that the police was on his side in this hour of
darkness, literally.
Remarkably, the traffic that night moved smoothly, and this was
only because the traffic policemen were out en mason to regulate it
at all important functions. Getting home to the suburbs was never
so easy.
One heard that at the Albless Baug in Charni Road, where a grand
wedding reception was in progress, when the lights went out a
wireless van immediately rolled up and parked outside the gates. A
large number of guests had come dressed in their finest jewellery
and while the Albless Baug gates were shut immediately to prevent
any untoward incident, everybody heaved a sigh of relief when the
lone arm of the law reached the spot. With the van outside the
gates, its headlights shining onto the Baug, the reception
continued happily.
We are forever running down the police and condemning them to a
man. This is the time to come out in praise of these marvellous
men, I think, for the magnificent manner in which they rallied
around to help the city tide the crisis. Kudos must go to Police
Commissioner S. C. Malhotra and his team.
Title : The police did a marvellous job the night the city was plunged in darkness
Author : Dr. Arvind Shenoy (Letter)
Publication : The Afternoon Despatch & Courier
Date : March 12, 1997
Where were you when the lights went out on February 28? I was in
my car, driving to the distant suburbs, and somewhere near Worli
Naka when suddenly darkness engulfed the city. Did I Panic? Not a
bit, for the Mumbai traffic policemen, that force we love to
badmouth on every other occasion. took over the streets and what a
fantastic job they did! There was not a single traffic snarl I
experienced all the way to Juhu and at every junction and, in fact,
helplessly sliding traffic light, the traffic policemen were there,
gently easing us along the way. At one place in Santacruz, one
enterprising constable had earn produced a torchlight which he
flashed to draw attention to himself so that motorists might know
that he was in command and there was no sense in panicking.
I tell you. I reached home earlier than normal that night. And
while my thoughts were with my poor fellow citizens stranded on the
Western and Central Railways, I could not help feeling delighted
that I had got home safely and early after all.
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