The commuters on the roads in the city had a harrowing time as the traffic was thrown out of gear following rallies taken out by Congress and some trade unions separately on Monday. Thousands of people hitting the roads to reach workplaces after the weekend was over compounded the on- the- road ordeal further. The cars were either stuck bumper to bumper or just crawled even hours after the rallies ended.
The places which bore the maximum brunt were Survey Chowk, Clock Tower, Darshan lal Chowk, Gandhi Road, Tehsil, Doon Hospital, Araghar, MKP College Road, Court Road, Prince Chowk and Saharanpur Chowk. Many angry commuters blamed traffic police for failing to rise to the occasion again despite having drafted a traffic plan beforehand.
“Police were informed of the bike rally taken out by Congress. Yet, they were found in the role of helpless spectators as the traffic kept piling up under their nose,” one of the commuters said.
Another said that the police chose to fawn on the Congress activists who rode bikes sans the mandatory helmets on their heads. “Some 1K Cong activists made a mockery of rules and their enforcers,” he added.
Members of some trade unions took out rallies and marched towards the Secretariat, something that added to the woes of the commuters.
Ramesh Uniyal, a commuter, said that he daily went to a school at Dalanwala from Rajpur to pick his daughter. “I got stuck midway and remained so for long as the traffic pileup was huge,” he complained. Amrita Singh, another commuter, said that the traffic movement from Dilaram Chowk to Court Road to Gandhi Road was irritatingly slow.
“I got late for the office which is at ISBT,” she said. Anil Kumar, a college student, said that he had faced traffic snarl at Saharanpur, Prince Chowk, Tehsil Chowk, Clock Tower, Rajpur Road and Survey Chowk. “Such rallies forcing the traffic to crawl are becoming a daily feature of the city life. Some steps should be taken to free the commuters from the recurring problems,” he said.