HYDERABAD: Call it tokenism or a case of cops showing a steely nerve, the traffic police of Hyderabad for a change showed that no one is above the law, not even the chief minister of the state. The city traffic police slapped a fine on one of the vehicles in Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao' s convoy with Registration Number TS 09 K 6666 for apparent violation of traffic rules.

The city traffic cops imposed a fine of Rs 4,000 on the vehicle under their scanner for violating the traffic norms on four occasions, as per the official website of Hyderabad Traffic Police. Firstly, the vehicle was fined Rs 1,000 for over-speeding/dangerous driving at Srirangapuram in Suryapet. The same vehicle was later found violating the traffic rules by over-speeding or dangerous driving at Madhapur under the Cyberabad commissionerate. As if this is not enough, this particular vehicle was also captured on the police department's cameras at Tippukhan Bridge and Children Park near Tankbund falling under the Hyderabad commissionerate.

Even as the news of traffic cops challaning the vehicle of none other than the chief minister's convoy became sensational, the chief minister's office quickly swung into damage-control mode. On learning about the traffic violations of the vehicle, they have promptly paid the fine amount on Wednesday.

While the city traffic police department's move left many in awe on the Internet, some see this as an act of mere tokenism, intended more at instilling fear among the general public to dissuade them from violating the traffic rules. The message from the incident goes out loud and clear: No one is above the law when it comes abiding by the rules of the road. The traffic department is once again having its hands full with almost all the vehicles beginning to hit the roads following easing of the lockdown restrictions recently. For close to two months, the roads of the city looked desolate with tighter lockdown curbs being enforced to prevent the coronavirus pandemic.

Now that all types of vehicles are taking to the roads, huge traffic jams have once again become the order of the day at many places in the city.