Hassan: All vehicles including those of government offices are subjected to thorough searches at check-posts to find if they are illegally transporting cash/material, if any, meant to be distributed among voters by political parties, and even ambulances have come under the scanner in Hassan.
Hassan Deputy Commissioner Randeep told Deccan Chronicle on Sunday that other than ambulances, staff posted at various check-points usually take about four minutes to search for any cash/material meant for voters.
But the search on ambulances will be of lesser duration of about two minutes and in emergency situations, staffers have been asked to verify details with the driver and have a quick glance inside the vehicles to let it go.
The search on ambulances is because of allegations that political parties use ambulances to transport cash/material meant to be distributed among voters during elections. Since, people believe that ambulances are mainly used to shift patients, they are unaware of such malpractices employed by parties to woo voters.
Searching ambulances is like a double edged sword because in genuine cases where a patient is being shifted for emergency medical attention to a hospital, a search on an ambulance which takes a couple of minutes, might prove costly in saving a life.
Hence, he has asked officials concerned to have a quick glance at ambulances and find out if the case is a genuine one before letting it go. The direction to the officials concerned is that the registration number of ambulance is noted down by them.
Meanwhile, personnel at check-posts are undertaking searches on vehicles passing through the district and Mr Randeep has been personally inspecting the check-posts.
