KOCHI: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stormed out of the venue of the much hyped launch of the Pink Police Patrol initiative of the Kochi police on Friday showing clearly his displeasure at the shoddy manner in which the event was held. The Chief Minister left the place without waiting to flag-off the all women crew patrol vehicle. The Chief Minister seemed to have lost his cool as organisers failed to keep a time schedule compounded by the compere of the event making a major goof up by inviting Mr Vijayan to make the welcome speech instead of inauguration.
City Police Commissioner M.P. Dinesh saved the situation by taking over the microphone and correcting her. The late arrival of ADGP B. Sandhya to the function has also not gone down well with the Chief Minister, sources said. The action of ADGP raised eyebrows as she not only arrived late for the function but went straight to make a speech without even offering a proper salute to the Chief Minister sitting on the dais. According to the schedule Mr Vijayan was to inaugurate the project, which promised round the clock security to women in the city, and flag off the vehicle for the purpose.
But the schedule went haywire while organisers struggled to accommodate the celebrity invitees that included actor Sheela. The inaugural speech of the CM was not followed by the flag off ceremony as scheduled and he was forced to sit through a speech by Mayor Soumini Jain and then screening of a short film on the new project. Although police officials in the venue including city commissioner Dinesh pleaded with the CM to flag-off the vehicle he left the venue stating that he would be late for the other events scheduled. Police sources however refuted reports of the CM leaving the venue in a huff and maintained that he left the place to attend another event.
