People’s ordeal on the road continued for the second successive day as Dehradun witnessed huge traffic jams on Tuesday following rallies carried out by the various outfits, including the main Opposition party BJP. Vehicles moved at a snail’s pace with public transports taking over an hour more to reach their destinations. Many of the schools having opened after the winter vacation added to the mess on the roads.
At noon, huge traffic jams were witnessed at a number of places like Rispana bridge, Jogiwala, Dharampur, Araghar and Clock Tower following BJP’s Chetna Yatra which started from Rispana bridge near Vidhan Sabha and ended at the BJP Mahanagar office. BJP leaders and supporters took to the roads either in four- wheelers or two –wheelers. However, some of them chose to walk on the roads, holding flags and shouting slogans.
Traffic pileup started as hundreds of BJP activists headed towards Rispana bridge to participate in Chetna Yatra. Things worsened further after the senior BJP leaders came out on the roads flanked by scores of followers. long queues of vehicles were seen stuck up with the police personnel, deployed at each of the important intersections, being more engaged in keeping things under control rather than unclogging the traffic pileup.
Police having drafted a traffic plan involving diversion of routes at various places keeping the yatra in view, failed to provide relief to the harangued commuters.
To add to the public woe, other associations like Janjati Vikas Morcha led by Amit Jain staged rallies, venting protest against the State government’s ‘faulty’ education policy and hike in tuition and admission fees by the public schools’ management. This aside, Uttarakhand Panchayat Sangathan members rallied from Parade Ground to Vikas Bhawan on Tuesday too, demanding the Centre to rescind its act of slashing budget for the two of the three rural representative institutions. A programme on Road Safety Week on, traffic jam was witnessed at the Clock Tower, the nerve centre of the city.
In the city, vehicles were found stuck up at Clock Tower, Survey Chowk, Dilaram Chowk, Doon Hospital, Darshan lal Chowk, Bindal, Clock Tower, Rispana, Saharanpur Chowk, Prince Chowk, Patelnagar Chowk and ISBT, resulting in the commuters remaining hooked up in the vehicles for hours.
Venting annoyance against the ordeal they have been facing almost daily helplessly without the least possibility of redress in sight, Ramesh Semwal, a commuter, said that they have given up hope that things would ever look up for them. “Rather, it seems more sufferings are in store for us,” he said.