Traffic thrown out of gear

Traffic thrown out of gear
D H News Service,Bangalore:
It was traffic snarls galore in the city, courtesy, Rahul Gandhis visit on Saturday.

As tens of thousands of congress party workers converged at the APMC yard in Jakkur, venue of the party convention, the traffic police had a tough time controlling the chaotic scenes at junctions.
As vehicles were forced to move at a snail’s pace, traffic was stopped at various intersections to make way for the AICC general secretary’s motorcade. The worst affected stretch was National Highway 7, (Bellary/Hyderabad Road), already in a mess due to the road widening work to Devanahalli. This stretch bore the brunt of the VIP visit, as police had cordoned off lanes joining the road as a security measure, even as a posse of cops were deployed.
Thousands of office-goers were put to hardship, even though people had resigned to the fact that a VIP visit without hardships to citizens was impossible.
The scene was the same when Mr Gandhi later made his way back from the convention towards the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office on Queens Road to address a press conference. Vehicles were stuck for hours in the central business district.
Giant cutouts and billboards of the scion of the Gandhi family with state leaders and the ubiquitous congress party flags in tricolour were seen in every nook and corner of the city, as the KPCC went all out to welcome Mr Gandhi.
Praveen Sood, additional commissioner of police (Traffic and Security) said that, “Whenever a lakh of people congregate in the city for a public meet some inconvenience is bound to happen. We ensure that minimum inconvenience is caused to public. We had a tough time but did our best. Traffic restrictions were not imposed. Only vehicle movement at intersections was stopped, when the motorcade passed” he said.