Though Keralites often shrug their shoulders when they are asked about their attitude to policemen, the visitors to the city on the hartal day seem to have a different opinion. At least that is what Peter and Ravi from Mumbai have to say. With half of his body paralysed, Peter and his friend Ravi arrived here from Mumbai for an ayurveda treatment at the government hospital, Tripunithara, on Saturday.
It was the news photographers who gathered outside Ernakulam Junction railway station first spotted Peter coming out of the platform on a wheelchair pushed by his friend Ravi. Seeing their plight one of them informed traffic assistant commissioner Muhammad Rafique. He immediately promised to help them and sent his own vehicle with two civil police officers to the station. The policemen took them to the hospital and did all the necessary arrangements for the patient at the hospital.
“We didn’t know about the hartal. In Mumbai on hartal days we get some auto rickshaw or taxi but here we got stranded at the station. But even in an auto rickshaw it is hard to put the wheel chair and stretchers,” Ravi said. “Police here are very friendly. In Mumbai we can’t imagine policemen coming for our help. We are really thankful to the policemen,” Peter said. It was for the first time Peter travelled in a police vehicle in his life.