People at the receiving end of the election heat around three weeks left for the democratic engagement in the state, the traffic in the state capital was thrown out of gear on Monday.
Rallies taken out by several parties with nomination process picking up momentum brought traffic nearly to a standstill on many important roads to the woes of the commuters. Despite police administration having drafted a traffic plan for rallies to be taken out by the candidates of various political parties as well as Independents, it did not lessen a bit the commuters’ ordeal on the roads.
large number of buses crammed with supporters of various candidates of different political parties started reaching the state capital since the morning. Traffic came to a grinding halt on many roads while at others the vehicles moved at a snail’s pace in the city. Pedestrians too faced difficulties to walk on footpath. Apart from this, school and college students too faced inconvenience when they came out on the roads around noon after their classes were over. The roads that bore the maximum brunt were Survey Chowk, Clock Tower, Darshan lal Chowk, Gandhi Road, Tehsil, Doon Hospital and Court Road. Things were grim on several roads with the vehicles remaining stuck for a long time. With hundreds of people hitting the roads, the day being a Monday, a huge traffic jam ensued.
Vehicles moved at a snail’s pace at many places. The ordeal that started in the morning continued till evening, landing the traffic police in a miserable plight.
At many of the important crossings across the city, vehicles were found stuck bumper to bumper, leaving the commuters in the lurch. Among the worst affected areas were Rispana, Survey Chowk, Dilaram Chowk, Mussoorie diversion, and Clock Tower, Ballupur Chowk and Balliwala Chowk, Mussoorie roads where traffic either crawled or got stuck.
Kamlesh Uniyal, resident of Rajpur Road, said that traffic movement from Dilarama Chowk to Court Road to Gandhi Road was irritatingly slow. “I got late for the office which is at Saharanour,” he said.
Amrish Semwal, 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. The serious thing is that such rallies making the traffic crawl is becoming a daily feature of the city life. Some steps should be taken to free the commuters from the recurring problems,” he said.