Rallies, rain choke City roads

Rallies, rain choke City roads
DH News Service, Bangalore:

The central business districts of the City were gridlocked on Saturday, thanks to rallies and and protests by various organisations, rains and the onset of the weekend!
The traffic snarls which began in the late morning hours coalesced into a logjam as the day progressed, lasting till evening in several areas. The first protest was by the City Youth Congress which staged a rally at Hudson Circle demanding BBMP measures to remove silt in various tanks. This led to Vehicles virtually grinding to a halt on Seshadri Road linking Anand Rao Circle with K R Circle.
Meanwhile, another protest was on near the Mahatma Gandhi statue. A huge rally by the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) sought stern action against industrialists of other states who have set up units in Karnataka at the cost of local industry. The 1,000-member strong rally began at Richmond Circle and culminated at the Mahatma Gandhi statue. With several autorickshaws joining the rally, it was virtual chaos on all roads in the vicinity.
Traffic clogged the Cubbon Road stretch from Minsk Square to Mahatma Gandhi statue. Police, in the meantime, sought to restrict traffic on MG Road, Kasturba Road and Queens Road. By afternoon, vehicle movement was hit on Brigade Road, Airport Road, Richmond Road, Residency Road and Cubbon Road.
The bumper-to-bumper crawl meant that people had to remain frozen in their vehicles.
Before the murmurs of curses from the stranded public could become a torrent, the skies opened up, cooling frayed tempers. But the elements spread the chaos further across the City and roads as far as Silver Jubilee Road near City Market and in Madivala were now clogged with traffic wading through water-logged roads.
As the situation eased and rains abated, there was one last gush of chaos as the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee organised a `Raj Bhavan chalo’ in protest against the failures of the State government.
Traffic police said they did their best to avoid the congestion. They diverted traffic on several routes in the backdrop of the protests. They pressed in more personnel to decongest the hold-ups.
Late in evening, normalcy was back on the roads. Another weekend had a belated beginning.