Protests keep city roads jammed all day

Lucknow: Blockade of the main Nishatganj-Charbagh road in the wake of protests by various organisations paralysed the city for over six hours on Tuesday.
Over 30,000 secondary unaided school teachers and 1,700 aaganwadi workers arrived in the city for protests, besides demonstrations by student outfits and trader organisations and brought traffic to a standstill on the busy road from noon till 6pm.The jam triggered a chain reaction, resulting in congestion on all roads leading to Hazratganj. Traffic was diverted to alternative roads but ended up causing jam in Cantonment, on University road, Mahanagar, Chinhat, Gomtinagar, Indiranagar and Aliganj.
Trouble began at 10am when teachers started assembling outside Charbagh. At around noon they took out a march till Vidhan Bhawan, leaving traffic in disarray all along the route. The traffic was completely blocked at 1.20pm when these teachers sat on dharna in front of Vidhan Bhawan. Police started diverting traffic from Hazratganj and Husainganj crossing. Before situation could ease, aanganwadi workers blocked road in front of Jawahar Bhawan and Indira Bhawan. As a result, traffic on the 500-metre Hazratganj-Sikandarabad crossings stretch was jammed from both sides.
As people tried to find a way out through lanes and bylanes, schools got over around 2pm adding to the burden on the roads. People were seen leaving vehicles behind and walking to their destination to attend to urgent work. School children and women were seen leaving buses and covering large distance on foot to get another conveyance. Even ambulances were spotted caught in traffic jam on Sapru Marg. The area of jam kept increasing as more and more vehicle coming from behind were caught in the congestion. It continued till 5pm and situation aggravated further as offices in the area got over between 5-6 pm. The worst followed when scores of local traders took out a candle light march from Janpath to GPO to protest recent assault on their leader by lawyers.
The worst affected routes were ​MG road from Parivartan square to Raj Bhawan; Trilokinath marg,​ Lohia Path, Rana Pratap Marg, Sapru Marg; Sarojini Naidu ​marg​ via Major Banks road to BN road of Lalbagh area; Cantonment road to Qaiserbagh roundabout; Burlington ​intersection​ to Charbagh; Mawaiya underpass to Sringarnagar and Gomti barrage to Sikandarbagh crossing. While people on were battling on these roads, situation on alternative routes was no better. The university road was blocked around 3pm by a group of agitating students, leading to jam all along Kapoorthala-Parivartan Chowk road. On link roads from Niralanagar, Mahanagar, Daliganj, traffic crawled till 7pm on major roads of the area.
Trans-Gomti area was also clogged throughout the day. Motorists said they had to wait for hours at Nilgiri square, IT crossing, Tedhipulia as traffic was paralysed. Traffic was also affected on the Lucknow- Faizabad road near Ghazipur area, the Gomtinagar-bound roads, Munshipulia and Ring road.