Chandigarh Administration, in its enthusiasm to make Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden visit to Chandigarh hassle-free, virtually drove the city to despair.
The patients and attendants had a near harrowing experience at the prestigious Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER). Even the ambulances were caught up in traffic snarls and the commuters were left stranded. Around 200 city schools were also closed for Modi’s four-hour visit to the City Beautiful.
To make the matters worse, the residents faced troubles to cremate their dead. The gates of the city’s only cremation ground in Sector 25 were closed to the dead. The reason: the venue of Modi’s public rally was right next to the burial ground.
Even Modi, via tweet on his official twitter handle, took note of the inconveniences caused to the residents and has recommended a probe into the same.
“The inconvenience caused to citizens in Chandigarh, especially shutting of schools due to my visit is regretted. It was totally avoidable…An inquiry will be held and responsibility will be fixed for the inconvenience caused to the people of Chandigarh,” tweeted Modi few minutes after his departure from the city.
For Modi’s visit, the administration, a day before, had ordered holiday in approximately 200 schools of the city. Most of schools were having their exams in progress and the decision has forced the school authorities to reschedule the exams of around 2.5 lakh students that were to be held on Friday.
City residents, who lost their loved ones, suffered another setback with the administration’s decision of closing down the “only” burial ground in Chandigarh. They were forced to cremate their dead by either taking them all the way to Manimajra, on the outskirts of the city, or to Mohali.
“Earlier also Prime Minister, President and other dignitaries have visited the city…It was never like this that schools have been closed, cremations ground was inaccessible…traffic was another problem…it was all nonsense,” a peeved city resident told The Pioneer.
That was not all! When the Prime Minister Modi was talking about being considerate towards their patients and facilitating them while addressing a gathering at PGI convocation, the patients and their attendants, present outside, faced harassment due to Prime Minister’s security restrictions.
The security personnel, stationed across the city, lacked empathy, forcing the ambulances carrying patients to take “long” diverted routes, and making the patients in need of immediate medical attention wait for long or guiding them towards elongated diversions.
As the Prime Minister’s huge 100-vehicle cavalcade zipped through the city from airport to PGI to Sector 25 and back to airport for three different events, the commuters, especially those on two-wheelers and cycles, broke out in sweat, literally, in harsh summer afternoon.
“There were so much traffic restrictions at different points…it was horrible experience to move around in the city today in such a hot weather…they should have closed down the entire city in such a case,” said Vivek, a college student.
Even as the Prime Minister Modi had made an attempt to provide solace to the city residents by asking to look into the matter, they are of the view that nothing concrete would come out of it.
“Inquiry would find nothing as it was the decision of the entire administration and not any individual. Instead of ordering an inquiry, Modi should have announced that things like this would not happen again, no schools will be closed down,” said Sector-20 resident Amanpreet Duggal, a teacher by profession.