Driving fast can be dangerous but driving slow, in Uttar Pradesh at least, has its own hazards. A constable and two sub-inspectors have found this out the hard way, having been suspended by an Inspector-General of Police in Meerut for driving his official car “too slowly”.The constable, Rajpal Singh, has been punished as he was the “culprit”, being the man at the wheel; the sub-inspectors have been accused of negligence for having allotted driving duties to Singh.An inquiry is under way on IG (Meerut Zone) Vipan Kumar Sharma’s orders to find out why the three suspended policemen “did what they did”.Sharma had called a special meeting on Sunday of all police officials of Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad districts to discuss security arrangements ahead of the Kawad Yatra. The IGP wanted to rush to the meeting in Ghaziabad from his Meerut City residence but Singh, who had been driving Sharma’s Ambassador for nearly a month, appeared to be in no hurry.A fuming IG who reached nearly 30 minutes late for the meeting summoned the state police motor transport section in-charge Yogendra Verma the next day and demanded an explanation.Taking a “strong” step, Sharma suspended constable Singh on charges that he was deliberately “driving slowly” as he wanted to be sent back to the highway patrol section where he had been posted earlier. “Constable Singh did not like the 24-hour duty at the IG office, so he had started driving slowly much to the disgust of our IG sahib,” said the IG’s Staff Officer, also named V K Sharma.The axe also fell on Madan Lal Sharma and Jahan Singh, sub-inspectors in the motor transport section. They were suspended for “showing negligence in their duty as they posted such a driver with the IG office”. Sharma’s Staff Officer said: “Both these SIs are responsible for posting good drivers with top police officials in the district. They should have put a better driver with IG sahib.”For his part, Sharma insists Singh needed to be punished. “He was driving at a speed of just 10 km per hour and playing loud music. The two SIs, I learnt, had their own. rivalry to post him with me. So till the inquiry is over, all three have been suspended,’’ he said.
