The ordeal on the road assumed grim proportions particularly along the stretch between Mohkampur railway crossing and Miyanwala chowk on Tuesday- the day on which Bhai Dooj was celebrated- as the police personnel-mandated to maintain law and order- were engaged in experimenting with the traffic management, resulting in the traffic moving at a snail’s pace since the morning. The angry commuters said that the ineptitude of the police personnel, ignorant of the ABC of the art of traffic management, imposing their whims in the name of experimentation along an important stretch had triggered the crawl of the traffic. “We had a harrowing time as it took over half an hour to pass a mere one kilometer stretch between Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) and Rajeshwary Nursery,” one of the commuters said.Another said that they were at the receiving end of the pranks played by the ill-trained police personnel, dictating them to follow their whims.
Finding traffic entangled on the road, this correspondent asked a police officer, found manning traffic at Mohkampur, to refrain from dictating terms to the commuters and let the traffic flow normally, given the importance of the crossing with traffic flowing from Haridwar and Dehradun. However, the police man ignored the appeal and continued to flaunt his prowess to the utter suffering of the hapless commuters.
The police personnel were found stopping vehicles coming from one side for a considerably long time to allow those coming from the other side, making a mess of the things on the roads. Even the Ambulances were made to wait despite appeal being made to ease things for them.
Besides, traffic, moving in two-three rows from Haridwar and Dehradun, were ordered to move in a single row, something that aggravated the traffic logjam. Patience running thin, the desperate commuters called up the emergency number, but to no avail.
Finding the emergency number 100 ineffective, this correspondent called up the SSP Dehradun Sadanand Date and requested him to ask the cops to stop intervene in the normal flow of the traffic. Things improved a bit as at 4.20 pm, the cops, posted on the roads, threw up their hands and let the traffic flow in its own course, sans any intervention. The congestion was cleared to some extent at least on the Dehradun side.
On condition of anonymity a shopkeeper of Mohkampur said that police has been busy in experiment and motorist as well shopkeepers had to bear its brunt. As we konw that this small market but due to bumber to bumper to traffic jam commuters could not cross even the road easily and ultimately shopkeeper receives dent on their business.