Mangaluru 30, March: Mangaluru Police Commissioner Kuldeep Jain on Thursday evening met protesters at the Bendoorwell Circle who were protesting against the police department and authorities claiming that they had failed to regulate traffic in the city.

The protest was being held in the wake of a road accident that took place earlier in the day when a 55-year-old woman was mowed down by a private bus at Bendoorwell Junction.

Jain who had earlier in the afternoon assured the protesters to meet them in the evening, arrived at the junction and took stock of the traffic situation before interacting with the protesters. Former MLA Moideen Bawa, MCC Leader of Opposition Naveen, Kannada movie actor Avinash Shetty and others were also present to extend support to the protesters.

READ ALSO: Mangaluru: Top cop meets protesters at Bendoorwell, assures of measures to curb traffic menace

Jain arrived with top police officials including DCP Traffic Dinesh Kumar and others and interacted with the protesters who expressed their grievances. Among the major demands of the protesters was to immediately remove the signal at the Kankanady Junction which they claimed was giving rise to the number of accidents in the vicinity.

They also demanded that a Zebra crossing be laid on Bendoorwell and Kankanady junctions along with stringent actions on private bus drivers for their rash and negligent driving.

Jain assured that he will look into all the concerns and demands of the people and would come up with appropriate measures in this regard. He also asserted that canceling the signal at Kankanady Junction would not be appropriate.

Regarding the issues of bus stops, laying speed breakers, and parking problems between Bendoorwell and Kanakandy the top cop and MCC Opposition Leader Naveen played blame games. Jain asserted that the MCC has to lay speed breakers and that his department was not responsible for it. Responding to Jain, Naveen asked the police department to send in a letter requesting the laying of speed breakers. The top cop, however, further claimed that his department had sent several letters urging the MCC to work on laying speed breakers but the MCC would not pay heed to their letters.

Jain further assured of stringent action and measures to curb rash and negligent driving of city bus drivers and added that the department would book more cases of violation against the bus drivers if found guilty.

He also opined that the responsibility of creating safer roads in the city should be shared both by the drivers and the pedestrians and that the pedestrians cannot violate laws of road crossing and others and blame bus drivers.

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New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took oath as a Lok Sabha MP on Thursday following her thumping victory from Kerala's Wayanad in a bypoll.

The 52-year-old, who joins her mother Sonia and brother Rahul as an MP in what is a rare instance of three members of a family together in Parliament, took affirmation in Hindi while holding a copy of the Constitution soon after the House met.

Ravindra Chavan (Cong), who won the Nanded bypoll also took oath in Marathi in the name of God. The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of his father Vasantrao Chavan recently.

Priyanka Gandhi took the plunge into active politics in 2019 and was later appointed Congress general secretary. Five years after that, Priyanka Gandhi begins her journey as an elected representative of the people.

With a winning margin of more than 4.1 lakh votes, she surpassed the tally of her brother Rahul Gandhi from Wayanad in Kerala.

Priyanka Gandhi's entry into Parliament comes at a difficult time for the party, which has been jolted by electoral defeats in Haryana and Maharashtra. It would be interesting to see if she is able to give a much-needed fillip to the grand old party and help put it back on the electoral track.

Often drawing comparisons with her grandmother Indira Gandhi for their similarity in looks and way of speaking, Priyanka Gandhi has been the go-to campaigner for the party since her entry into active politics and even before that when she campaigned for her mother Sonia and brother Rahul.

Congress leaders from Wayanad handed over the election certificate of the Wayanad parliamentary by-election to Priyanka Gandhi on Wednesday and conveyed their best wishes.

Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday won the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll with a thumping margin of over four lakh votes, defeating Sathyan Mokeri of the CPI(M)-led LDF.

 

further details are awaited.