With the mercury soaring in Dehradun, the common people, particularly the schoolchildren, suffered a lot on the roads as traffic came to a standstill at important crossings with thousands of Congress workers staging rallies to mark the formal assumption of office by the newly appointed Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee chief Pritam Singh here on Thursday.
The procession accompanying Singh started from the municipal corporation of Dehradun compound and passed through busy market areas of the city before it concluded at the Congress Bhawan, leaving a trail of traffic congestion behind.
To attend the rally, vehicles crammed with Congress activists coming from various parts of the state, particularly from Chakrata region Singh hails from, hit the roads in their hordes since the morning, crippling the traffic.
Several crossings like Tehsil, Prince Chowk, Saharanpur, Premnagar, Saharanpur, Dilaram Chowk, Mussoorie diversion, Rispana and ISBT saw huge traffic pileup. With the vehicles being parked at various places, including Parade Ground, the Congress party workers marched towards Municipal Corporation campus from where rally started after 12 pm.
Despite the police administration having drafted a traffic plan to ease congestion, the people had to sweat for hours, cramped inside their vehicles under the sweltering summer heat. Things were such that it became difficult even for the pedestrians to walk their way forward. The plight of the school and college students was the worst when they came out to go back home after their classes were over. The roads that bore the maximum brunt were Survey Chowk, Clock Tower, Darshan lal Chowk, Gandhi Road, Tehsil, Prince Chowk, Saharanpur, Doon Hospital and Court Road.
Kanchan Singh, resident of Rajpur Road, said that traffic movement from Dilarama Chowk to Court Road to Gandhi Road was irritatingly slow. “I remained stuck in the traffic jam while going to Court for some urgent works,” she said.
Suman Bisht, resident of Patelnagar, said that he had faced traffic snarl at Saharanpur, Prince Chowk and Tehsil Chowk. “I went to Dalanwala to pick up my daughter from the school and got stuck in the jam at Tehsil,” he said.