Traffic grinds to a halt

Traffic grinds to a halt
Deccan Herald

Traffic in parts of the City’s central business district came to a standstill on Friday evening with bottlenecks choking Cubbon Road and M G Road for a couple of hours.

Traffic in parts of the City’s central business district came to a standstill on Friday evening with bottlenecks choking Cubbon Road and M G Road for a couple of hours.

Vehicular movement was severely hit as people started pouring in for the rally by the People’s Front at the BMP playground in Shivajinagar.

“Cubbon Road was chock-a-block from 6 pm to 7:30 pm because buses were not allowed to enter and exit Shivajinagar. Traffic was diverted to Cubbon Road, M G Road and St John’s Church Road. We managed to bring it under control by around 8 pm,” said Additional Commissioner (Traffic) M N Reddi. More than 30,000 people attended the rally.

“The problem started with people arriving in impromptu processions. On the way they burnt effigies throwing the traffic out of gear. There was a logjam at Anil Kumble Circle as early as at 4:30 pm because one procession stopped and burnt an effigy of George Bush,” said another police officer.

Though the traffic police had announced an elaborate route diversion for the rally, they remained hapless spectators when traffic went awry. “Traffic diversion doesn’t always work because pedestrian movement cannot be prevented. Also, the time of the rally coincided with the peak hour traffic,” said Mr Reddi. He said people came in large numbers from south Bangalore, Mysore Road and City market area to Shivajinagar.

The Shivajinagar bus stand remained completely empty as buses were parked on Cubbon Road and Queens Road. Traffic was normalised around 8:30 pm.

Commercial Street was shut down by 6:30 pm and the entire stretch was empty. Shoppers and shopowners alike were taken by surprise when the police asked them to shut shop and leave. Some of them were trapped inside the shops till late in the evening.

Traffic was banned from entering Kamaraja Road, Seppings Road and Thimmaiah Road under Bharathinagar police station limits. Police mobile vans moved around asking people to get back home. Armed police personnel were deployed at various spots in the area.

There was an uneasy calm in the area surrounding Commercial Street. Some groups were still pelting stones at the police and passersby. Majid, a businessman from Commercial Street, with his other colleagues, volunteered to help the police on Kamaraja Road. They stopped the people from entering the area and diverted the traffic.

According to some eyewitnesses, the trouble could have been prevented had the police arrived on time. “There was no police with the processionists. Only when things got bad did the police come in but by then the situation had already turned volatile,” Majid said. The rally, however, went on undisturbed. Former MP and Congress leader C K Jaffer Sharief addressed the meeting. The police have clamped ban under Section 144 CrPC in Bharathinagar police limits.