Police pressured for free passes

By K.V.Subramanya

BANGALORE, MAY 4. The ``Prince of Rock'' Bryan Adams in the City might have enthralled music lovers. But Adams caused embarrassing moments for the police officers, mainly those in the Central Division.

The rock show was held on Palace Grounds, which falls in High Grounds Police Station limits in Seshadripuram Sub-division.

What worried the police officers was not making security arrangements for the show, but ``arranging'' free passes for ministers, legislators, politicians, senior IPS and IAS officers and even the members of the Fourth Estate and their friends.

It is said that almost every second telephone call the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central), Assistant Commissioner of Police (Seshadripuram) and the Inspector of the High Grounds Police Station received in the past two days were from senior officers and politicians, seeking a pass for the Bryan Adam show. Each of the VIPs had been requesting at least 10 passes.

An officer told The Hindu that the organisers of the show had issued more than 500 passes to police officers, who in turn had distributed them to politicians and senior bureaucrats.

This is not the first occasion in which police officers in the Central Division had been facing such a peculiar problem. The situation was almost similar when the "Gods of Rock" Deep Purple descended on Palace Grounds last month to perform in aid of the Gujarat earthquake victims.

The Central Division police were put to more embarrassment by VIPs when the one-day international cricket match between India and Australia was played at the Chinnaswamy Stadium recently. ``The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) was not willing to spare more passes, but our VIPs were unrelenting,'' an officer said.

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