Traffic in the State capital was thrown out of gear as activists of several organisations and political parties staged stirs in support of their demands on Tuesday. The ordeal on the road peaked around noon when the school students came out to go back home.
Vehicles moved at a snail’s pace with public transports taking over an hour more to reach their destinations. long queues of vehicles were seen stuck up at various crossings in the city, especially around noon.
Police personnel remained deployed at each of the important crossings to unclog snarls if they happened due to the agitations lined up for the day. However, their presence failed to be of any avail to the suffering commuters, as they looked more engaged in keeping order rather than unclogging the traffic snarl. Vehicles were found stuck up at Clock Tower, Survey Chowk, Dilaram Chowk, Doon Hospital, Darshan lal Chowk, Prince Chowk, Bindal, Clock Tower, Rispana, Saharanpur Chowk, Prince Chowk, Patelnagar Chowk and ISBT across the city.
Some had to wait for a long time to get autos or buses to reach destinations. Road users sounded angry over the district administration with some repair works being underway on various roads across the city. “This is compounding the ordeal for us,” said an angry commuter found stuck in the jam at Survey Chowk.
The protest rallies taken out by a number of organisations messed with the traffic system in the city.
While scores of unemployed youths protested against the alleged delay in the publication of the result of the lecturer Teacher (lT) examination the Federation of Bachelor of Education and Teachers Eligibility Test (TET) qualified unemployed candidates resorted to begging on the roads here by way of token protest to highlight their plight.
This aside, Uttarakhand Treasury Employees Santaghan staged a rally too in support of their demand of the rectification in the pay anomalies and the activists associated with the BJP’s youth affiliate led by its Mahanagar president Vipin Rana protested against increasing crimes and deteriorating law and order in the State. The latter vented anger over a policeman being crushed by death by cattle smugglers in Gadarpur area in Udham Singh Nagar on Saturday night.
They burnt the State government in effigy too. However, this was not the end of the protesting spree. Add to these the protest staged by the members of the Aam Aadmi Party’s Dehradun unit at the State BJP headquarters and the picture of the traffic mess in the city roads would be complete. AAP activists articulated anger against the raids conducted by the CBI in Delhi secretariat allegedly at the behest of the NDA Government.
Manisha Bharti, resident of Raipur, said that it has become a normal phenomena for the city residents to face traffic jams on the roads. “Under democracy, staging stir is a normal form of articulating collective anger. But the plight of the common people should be kept in mind when the political parties craft their agitation strategies. Besides, the role of police is pitiable. Despite the district police going for experiments by changing routes to resolve the traffic snarl, things remain the same for us,” she said.