BENGALURU: A cop posted for security at one of the entrances of the Cubbon Park Metro station decided to take it easy last Saturday night (January 20) and downed the shutters! Red-faced Metro officials ended up opening the entry 25 minutes later after apologising to people waiting outside.
According to Metro sources, Namdev, a constable attached to the Karnataka State Industrial Security Force (KSISF) decided to shut down the entry at 8.56 pm when he was the lone person guarding the HAL entry (B entry) of the station. All station entrances are expected to be open until close of train services at 11 pm, a move effected since the launch of the full phase I of Metro on June 17, 2017.
“A private security guard informed the Station Controller around 9 pm that the entry was shut. There was confusion as no one knew what had happened and CCTV footage was reviewed. The Controller then informed the Operations Control Centre at Baiyappanahalli,” said a Metro official. Top operation officials instructed him to open the shutter immediately.
The Controller then half-opened the shutter and apologised to the few people waiting outside. “He had to send security personnel to this entry and then reopen it at 9.22 pm,” he added.
Metro officials insist that “this is an act of negligence committed by the cop and is a rare event.”
Meanwhile, the cop was asked to explain his action by Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation officials.
“The constable said that his superior Police Sub Inspector Manjunath attached to the Karnataka State Reserve Police told him he could shut shop by 9 pm,” a source said. The PSI rationalised his orders to BMRCL by saying he had received instructions from the previous Metro MD to close this entrance as well as two entrances of Vidhana Soudha by 9 pm due to lack of patronage.
Officials counter it by saying this order was in effect only till the commencement of the entire Phase-I”
For the last seven months, this entrance had shut only by 11 pm. So, how can the cops decide to close it by 9 pm one day?” an official sought to know.