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| PM’s visit throws normal life out of gear in Jammu | | VVIP security culture eats up livliness | | Kunal Shrivatsa
JAMMU, Feb 3: In view of the thick security blanket and heavy restrictions imposed by the traffic police during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the winter capital of the state here today, the life virtually came to a standstill as the access to most of the city routes either remained completely out of bounds or had restricted usage for the general public.
It was all ‘chaos and confusion’ in the entire city till the time Prime Minister, who was here to inaugurate 101st chapter of Indian Science Congress at the University of Jammu, flown back to the national capital. Even as the vehicles were allowed to ply on different routes, the restricted movement of traffic led to jams on several city roads thereby making the commuters to reach their respective destinations after toiling hard that too in inclement weather.
While some roads wore a deserted look, the majority of the road stretches witnessed jams as the traffic flow gone haywire since the restrictions imposed by the security agencies obstructed their smooth movement particularly Dogra Chowk, Bikram Chowk, Gandhi Nagar and fly over.
Already grappled with the jams and restricted traffic movement, a large number of commuters also had to bore the brunt of downpour which started at around 11:30 am and continued till late afternoon.
“The commuters were seen heading towards their destinations on foot but their miseries do not end here as they had to cover long distances under intermittent rain,” a commuter, Joginder Lal, said.
According to eyewitnesses, while majority of the people especially office goers reached their destinations behind schedule, a large number of school children along with their parents were also seen waiting for the school buses in different parts of the city as most of the students were unaware that the schools will not function due to the VVIP visit.
“It was hapless for motorists who had to bear the brunt as it took them hours together to reach their destinations… The PM’s visit also led to traffic backlog on fly over till Tawi Bridge… I reached my office at Gandhi Nagar from Roop Nagar after almost two hours,” an employee in a private firm, Sachin told Early Times.
Sunil Kumar, a father of two school going kids, said, “My children study at MHAC, Nagbani and they were ready to go school however their bus did not reach at the scheduled time of 8:15 am… We waited for the arrival of the bus at the stop for about fifteen minutes but it did not turn up…. Soon, I got a call from my relative that school will remain closed today as the roads are closed because of PM’s visit. "
Meantime the patients and attanadants heading towards Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H) too had to face tough time during the day as some of them got stuck in traffic jams on different city roads.
“My mother is ailing and I had to take her to GMC&H for a check-up and geting clinical tests but thanks to the traffic chaos prevailing in the city we reached the hospital after almost two and a half hour …. The traffic restrictions caused lot of inconveniences to several other patients too as they had to reach GMC&H after taking longer routes.” Romesh Kumar, said. |
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