Protests against dirty Yamuna and Land Bill cripple traffic across Delhi
When 8,000-odd activists poured into Delhi from the Faridabad side, the traffic police closed certain roads, including a part of the Delhi-Agra highway, which made the situation worse.
The roads of South and Central Delhi were on Friday paralysed because of the 'activism' of protesters and inaction of the police.
The arterial roads, chock-a-block with protesters of various hues and men in khaki as stranded bystanders, witnessed such chaos that vehicles stood bumper-to-bumper five hours in a 30-km-long jam.
The social activists virtually held the city hostage in the absence of any alerts by the traffic police or Delhi Administration despite the protests having been planned in advance and the authorities notified about these.
"The protesters were shouting 'Yamuna ji ke vaaste, khali kar do raaste (Please clear the roads for the sake of the Yamuna). The police stood just like spectators instead of clearing the mess," Ashish Raj, who was caught in the mess, said.
When 8,000-odd activists poured into Delhi from the Faridabad side, the traffic police started closing certain roads, including a major part of the Delhi-Agra highway, which made the situation worse. Traffic cops stood helplessly on crossings and roadsides, hoping perhaps that the snarls would disentangle on their own.
As if it were not enough to clog Delhi's roads, the departing land Bill protesters aggravated the situation.
The walking crowds dealt a massive blow to traffic flow on the Capital's arteries. Motorists - stuck in the 30-km jam - started posting details on social networking sites about how bad the situation was.
The situation got out of control when peak hours started around 4 pm. Vehicles stood idling at places like Connaught Place, Mathura Road, India Gate, Badarpur, Okhla, Nehru Place, Lajpat Nagar, AIIMS, Pragati Maidan, ITO and parts of Ring Road from 4 pm to 9 pm. With lakhs of people on the roads, vehicles were stranded over a six-km radius from the route of protesters.
Apart from Delhi, the snarls affected the residents of Noida and Faridabad too. Traffic to and from Noida hardly moved for almost four hours.
Initially, when about 6,000 people entered Delhi, the traffic police shifted two-way traffic to one carriageway which slowed down traffic from Noida to Delhi, Lajpat Nagar to Badarpur etc. "I left my Noida office around 3 pm to attend a function at Eros hotel in Nehru Place. But I had to spend almost three hours on the road," Saket Kumar, a software engineer said.
When the protesters reached Mathura Road, the traffic police diverted the traffic on various roads, including Barakhamba Road and Janpath, and closed the routes connecting Connaught Place.
Ahana, who was caught in the snarls, tweeted: "Horrible jam at Okhla near crown Plaza, please avoid the under pass route." Similarly, other commuters clicked pictures of the traffic standing still and posted these on their Facebook walls and Twitter.
The traffic police finally woke up around 4 pm and issued the first update on the traffic situation. The force also updated its official Facebook page, regretting the inconvenience faced by motorists.
"A demonstration has been organised by Yamuna Bachao Andolan workers near the Faridabad border... Due to this, the traffic coming from Faridabad to Delhi and Delhi to Faridabad is diverted on single carriageway only. Traffic movement from Apollo towards Ashram is closed. Inconvenience regretted," it stated.
When the situation turned worse, the police gave another update around 5 pm and then, at 6 pm, pleaded helplessness and blamed the protestors for the road mess.
The Yamuna activists had on March 15 started from Kosi Kalan, a town in Mathura District. Tens of thousands of protesters, including farmers and religious leaders, are participating in the march to demand the release of water from Hathini Kund barrage in Haryana into the 'dying' Yamuna.