No end to commuters’ woes in Jalandhar

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 13

The district administration and local police seem to have allowed anyone and everyone to lodge a protest anytime and anywhere in the city.

While it has been the farmers or religious organisations which have been recently blocking the city roads and affecting the lives of commuters, today it was Bahujan Samaj Party (Ambedkar) that chose to block Nakodar Chowk all of a sudden this afternoon and create a mess.

Since the Nakodar Chowk is one of the busiest intersections of the city, all connecting areas including Lajpat Nagar and Link Road got badly choked. Hundreds of commuters got stuck up for nearly an hour unable to move back or forth.

BSP (A) chief Dev Dass Nahar had reportedly organised the protest against the state government blaming it for rising corruption and false promises made to the masses.

Sporting blue flags on their vehicles and using blaring mikes, the party leaders chose to organise a rally right at the intersection. The rally continued in the presence of the mute Punjab Police personnel who let them go on despite commuters honking their vehicles and streams of cars getting caught up in the traffic snarl.

Several patients and their attendants admitted in the hospitals around the area, too, got affected. Daljeet Singh, an ambulance driver, said he too found it extremely difficult to ferry a patient needing emergency treatment to a hospital.