Dharnas choke city?s lifeline

THE ARTERIAL road—Vidhan Sabha Marg— on Monday witnessed traffic turmoil following dharnas staged by several organisations. The dharnas centred around the Vidhan Sabha building. The chaos not only rendered the arterial road inaccessible to commuters, it trickled down to other busy roads like Cantt Road, BN Road, Trilok Nath Road and Narahi, throwing the traffic out of gear.

The situation became worse when the police instead of focusing on smooth movement of traffic were engaged in controlling demonstrators.

The traffic blues began from 10.30 am with the staging of dharnas by the Shiksha Mitras, the Pragatisheel Manav Samaj Party and the Janata Shahar Party in front of the Vidhan Bhavan.

People blamed the local administration for allowing so many dharnas, processions on a single day.

University students were in for a shock when they were asked to change their routes due to rally by the Shiksha Mitras, who were on their  way from the Lakshman Mela ground to the Vidhan Bhavan.

The students were not informed about the change of routes in advance and many of them were seen pleading with demonstrators so that they could reach exam centres on time.

Some of them were lucky to get the nod, while others had to change their routes and turned up late for the examination.

Meanwhile, the Shiksha Mitras under the banner of Adarsh Shiksha Mitra Welfare Association took out a procession from the Lakshman Mela ground to the Vidhan Bhavan demanding regularisation of their services instead of keeping  them on contract basis. They also demanded that their stipend amount be raised from the present Rs 2400 to Rs 4,500. Later they submitted a memorandum to the Chief Development Officer.

Activists of the Pragatisheel Manav Samaj Party led by Rukmani Devi, sister of bandit queen Phoolan Devi, also demonstrated in front of the Vidhan Bhavan.

Instead of clearing road for traffic movement, the police were seen busy in protecting the VVIPs, who are attending the Assembly session.

People coming from Charbagh had to change their routes towards Annexe. While those coming from Nishatganj were diverted to other routes by the police.

Huge traffic snarls were witnessed on the  Ashok Marg-Vidhan Sabha Marg stretch and the road between Burlington crossing and Vidhan Sabha.