Hyderabad: Cops night out on New Year Eve

Hyderabad: While the twin cities celebrated the dawn of the New Year with family and friends, police officers remained vigilant, guarding the roads and helping citizens celebrate peacefully.

“My daughter waited till 3.30 am for me to come home and wish me. This doubled our joy in addition to the peaceful celebrations,” said Hyderabad Traffic II DCP A.V. Ranganath. While leaving her 55-year-old mother alone at home was difficult on New Year’s Eve, ensuring the safety of women was the priority for Snehitha, ACP Cyberabad SHE Teams.

As the clock struck 12, the city’s roads were ruled by bikers, with everyone heading for Necklace Road. And though the cops had a tough time keeping things smooth, there were no untoward incidents or disturbances across the city on New Year’s Eve. Though missing out on celebrating with their family and friends is tough on our security personnel, most of them take it as yet another opportunity to celebrate the occasion with the society and people.

Mr Ranganath’s family understands his responsibilities, and he has never had any complaints from his wife Ms Lavanya and daughter Rishita. “Despite seeing my irregular work timings, Rishita aspires to become a public servant. Being in such a profession, our joy comes by serving the people,” added Mr Ranganath. Being a female officer and in-charge of the SHE teams, women’s safety comes before family and celebrations for Ms Snehitha.

Ms Snehita, who lives with her mother, has night duty once in 20 days, but leaving her mother alone on New Year’s Eve was difficult for her. “Though we have many limitations compared to men, our role is prominent in terms of safety of women. With more women coming out at nights to celebrate, ensuring their safety was the true celebration for us,” she added.

While the city celebrated the New Year, there were a few who were on duty to ensure that medical emergencies arising out of the revelries could be handled promptly.

Doctors, nurses and other medical staff in the emergency wards of the city’s government and private hospitals were vigilant throughout the night.

Dr K. Rajesh, who was posted at the emergency ward of Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in the night of December 31, said, “For others, celebrating New Year’s means various things, but for us doctors, celebration is being available for patients who need us. It is part of the profession and I am sure that no sincere doctor would feel bad about serving patients just because he cannot celebrate New Year.”

Ms Swaroopa, a senior nurse working at the emergency ward of NIMS for 10 years said, “There is nothing to feel bad. It is our job to take care of patients and we are doing it like any other day.”

Between 8 pm and 8 am over Thursday and Friday, there were more than a dozen trauma cases brought to the NIMS emergency ward.

Dr Nikhil Mathur, clinical director and group head of Emergency Medicine, Care Hospitals said, “This year at the Banjara Hills branch we received only four cases of trauma, which is a good news because earlier the number of cases were around 10-15 on New Year’s Eve. Of the four, only one was a serious head injury. I am sure this is an effect of the traffic police seriously checking drunk driving.”

He added, “Working the night when your close ones are celebrating is not a difficult thing for doctors because we entered the profession knowing that some compromises would have to be made at a personal level and it is for the good of the society. Moreover, in the morning of January 1, our hospital management arranged a small celebration with cake for doctors who were on duty at night.”