Mamata Banerjee walks in rally for road safety

The city police organised the rally for “Safe Drive, Save Life” campaign from Moulali to Esplanande on Thursday. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had inaugurated the state-wide campaign in July. 

Banerjee on Thursday reached Moulali at around 2 pm and within a couple of minutes she started marching towards Esplanade.

There was a tableau of the Kolkata Police featuring “Safe Drive, Save Life” at the front of the rally and the theme song of the campaign that was penned by Chief Minister was also being played in the tableau.

There were 100 sergeants on two-wheelers following the tableau in the rally. Each of the sergeants had put on a batch with “Safe drive, Save life” written on it.

The sergeants on their Bullet bikes were incorporated in the rally considering them as the face of the Kolkata Traffic Police. People on both sides of the roads were eagerly waiting to get a glimpse of the Chief Minister. They found her walking just after the sergeants passed on their motorbikes. The rally that started from Moulali after being flagged off by the Chief Minister reached Chittaranjan Avenue after passing through B B Ganguly Street.

It finally ended at the ground of Kolkata Mounted Police at Esplanade where she greeted people and students from different schools in the city on the auspicious day of Raksha Bandhan. After greeting everyone, she urged people to drive safely by following traffic norms that would help in reducing the number of road accidents.

People had seen almost all politicians giving time for election campaign or rallies of their political parties, the city dwellers were overwhelmed seeing the Chief Minister attending a rally to save lives of people by reducing road accidents.

“It may be mentioned that Mamata Banerjee being the supremo of Trinamool Congress had walked in rallies in support of her party’s nominees at different parts of the state. But today (Thursday) she is walking as a Chief Minister and completely for an apolitical reason. She single-handedly took up the responsibility to take the message of Safe Drive Save Life campaign up to each and every people of the state. With her efforts, the state will be number 1 in traffic management soon,” said Bishnu Bhattacharya, a resident of Girish Park area.

Rajeev Kumar, Commissioner of police, and other senior police officers of the Kolkata Police and Kolkata Traffic Police were present in the rally.

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, the state youth affairs minister Aroop Biswas, the state urban development minister Firhad Hakim and local MLA Nayana Bandopadhyay were present in the rally. Several Tollywood artists including Dev, Soham, Rudranil and June Maliya also walked in the rally.

The state Youth Affairs department had also organised “Sanskriti Divas” on the auspicious day of Raksha bandhan at Y-channel in Esplanade.

The sergeants of the Kolkata Traffic Police have distributed rakhis to those they had prosecuted on Thursday on charges of flouting traffic norms. In this connection a senior police officer said that the initiative was taken to make people realise that the police are there to help common people.

Meanwhile, in a unique gesture medical bank, an NGO working in the health sector distributed rakhis to create traffic awareness among people. The bank volunteers have distributed 1500 rakhis among drivers and pedestrians near Sovabazar Metro station.