Rallies reduce traffic to a crawl

Traffic in the Capital crawled throughout office hours with political activists marching onto the streets of central and northwest Delhi from morning till evening on Monday.

Traffic in the Capital crawled throughout office hours with political activists marching onto the streets of central and northwest Delhi from morning till evening on Monday.

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A rally organised by the Delhi Pradesh Youth Congress (DPYC) at the Japanese Park in Rohini affected vehicular movement on arterial routes such as the Ring Road and the outer Ring Road.

"I left my house at 9.45am but was stuck at Madhuban Chowk for more than an hour due to the increased congestion at the intersection due to the rally in sector 9," said Ramesh Sikdar, 35, a sales executive employed at a private firm in Connaught Place.

According to traffic police, while vehicular congestion was reported from some pockets, no major jams were brought to their notice in the Rohini area.

Meanwhile, central Delhi roads were clogged and traffic was thrown out of gear till 7pm owing to three rallies organised back-to-back at and around Jantar Mantar.

The first of these, a protest against foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector, organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) left commuters struggling from 10am till 1pm.

"Later, close to 1,200 people, affiliated to the All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, marched onto Jantar Mantar in the afternoon and threw traffic out of gear throughout Connaught Place till beyond 7pm," said a senior traffic police officer.

Disruption was also reported from Tilak Marg, Mandi House and Sikandra Road areas with hundreds of Team Anna members protesting against the registration of a criminal case of cheating against senior member Kiran Bedi outside the Patiala House court complex.

With both the organisers and participants arriving at Jantar Mantar after 4pm, and traffic restrictions already in place on Janpath because of on-going construction work by the Delhi Metro, vehicular movement came to a complete standstill on Ashoka Road, Parliament Street.

"We had to close Parliament Street twice, which might have caused minor disruptions, but no major dislocations were reported," said Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (traffic).