Protests by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and AJSU party turned the city into one big mess where people had to face grave inconveniences due to overcrowding of the streets to the hilt.
Vehicles were creeping sometimes not moving at all and weary faces on the wheels conveyed that the protests turned more against people than the State government which was the target of ABVP and AJSU.
The barricading created to stop protestors blocked movement of vehicles towards CM house and Raj Bhawan—two targets of protestors—that forced vehicles to follow selected routes to go to Morhabdi or out of the city through Bariatu and Booty More. Roads around Morhabadi ground was completely packed with vehicles of AJSU and ABVP making other vehicles to follow alternate routes to avoid friction with agitated demonstrators.
“I had to turn the vehicle back from so many places to go to Ratu Road. Now I am stuck near Sidho Kanhu Park for over 20 minutes,” said Pankaj Jain, a resident of Harihar Singh Road.
About six barricading on approach roads to CM House and Raj Bhawan led the traffic to be diverted from Kanke Road, SSP’s residence, Nakshtra Van and Nigam Park to other roads resulting in heavy traffic on remaining streets. The worst among affected were school children as school buses were stranded in traffic for longer than expected duration.
“We left the school on time but only to end up in traffic jam barely a kilometer away from our school. It is difficult to maneuver a big vehicle like a school bus on a narrow street. Vehicles are moving by inches. We are concerned about children and their parents who will be anxiously waiting for them,” said the conductor of Cambrian Public School.
The ripple effect of sudden changes in traffic was visible in the outskirts of the city as even areas which were unknown to congestion also got a pulse of the problem which is common in Main Road. Roads from Morhabadi to Boreya, Ratu Road to Kathal More, Karam Toli Chowk to Booty More, Jail More to lalpur Chowk, Katchari Chowk to Sahid Chowk witnessed extremely slow pace of traffic movement which was interrupted for more than half-an-hour due to movement of demonstrators.
There were incidents of misbehavior by activists and supporters of the both the organization that added insult to injury of those who lost their patience with the blocked traffic and attempted to cross the path of protestors marching towards Raj Bhawan and CM house. The agitated mob however allowed ambulances to pass through.
“We are waiting for them to pass through the area quickly but they too large in number and waiting under the Sun is only aggravating our inconvenience,” said an onlooker at Karam Toli as ABVP members walked in queue.