The traffic system in the State capital was thrown out of gear on Monday following the college strike called by the students’ union leaders of DAV (PG) College demanding resignation of the college principal. The unions affiliated to the Congress and others took out rallies in support of the demand.
Vehicles moved at a snail’s pace and public transports took over an hour more to reach their destinations. long queue of vehicles were seen stuck up at various crossings in the city, especially when the rally was on. Police looked more engaged in keeping order rather than unclog the traffic snarl.
Despite Dehradun traffic police having drafted plan by way of putting barricades at various places and diverting traffic at crossings through which the rallies passed, the commuters faced mile-long snarls that took hours to unsnarl. Various roads like Rajpur Road were blocked when the protesters passed through.
The school/college students and the office goers bore the brunt of things throughout the day. Traffic congestion was huge, especially during the school-going time in the morning and things were the same when the schools closed for the day around noon. The parents had to struggle hard to reach the schools on time with vehicles inching along through the stalled traffic. Vehicles were found stuck up at Survey Chowk, Dilaram Chowk, Doon Hospital, Darshan lal Chowk, Haridwar Road, Prince Chowk, Bindal, Clock Tower, Rispana, Balliwala, Ballupur, Saharanpur Chowk, Prince Chowk, Patelnagar Chowk, ISBT and some other places in the city.
Bike-borne Sohan Bisht who was found stuck in the jam at Clock Tower said, “The traffic police seemed to have been caught unaware with the snarl causing traffic to crawl.”