Traffic paused for six hours by protesting lawyers

JAIPUR: Normal life was paralyzed throughout the day in the city on Wednesday when thousands of lawyers took to the street in protest against the suicide of a colleague following alleged police atrocity. The city traffic was put on a standstill mode throughout the day when the lawyers block city traffic demanding arrest of the accused responsible for abetting the suicide.
Murlidhar Yadav (32), a lawyer practicing at the session's court committed suicide on Wednesday morning following alleged police harassment.
Scuffles and spats were witnessed between lawyers and common public when the latter were not allowed to drive their vehicles into the area where the lawyers were blocking the roads.
Several commuters including the foreign tourists were stranded since the traffic connecting railway station to the bus stand was blocked by the agitating lawyers.
"What is this going on? Is it some festival out there?" a couple from Queensland (Austalia) wondered as they were compelled to walk to their hotel located at Bani Park.
They even asked a policeman standing at the spot to intervene but police remained a "mute spectator" of the happenings around the Khasa Kothi.
Most of the people including senior citizens were forced to walk towards the Sindhi camp bus stand from Jaipur railway station.
"They can't be abusing us. It is sheer lawlessness. Every time somebody picks up an issue and puts our life to ransom, which is a wrong practice," said Babu Lal Sharma, who was stopped at Khasa Kothi when he was going to meet his pregnant wife at Janana Hospital.
However, some lawyers speak up for not disturbing the common man but still justified the pelting of stones on the buses. "While agitating, we should not disturb the common man. If we have broken the windscreen of a bus, it is however justified since we also pay tax. At the same time, we should also avoid doing things through which we lose respect," said a lawyer who was addressing the gathering of lawyers outside the sessions court.
Outside the Rajasthan High Court where hundreds of lawyers were demanding the arrest of those responsible for abetting the suicide of their colleague Yadav, no vehicles were not allowed to pass. At some distance senior police officers were standing but could not do anything to let the vehicles pass.
Meanwhile, the traffic on the roads including MI Road, Ajmer road, Harischandra Marg was chaotic since all the traffic was diverted through these roads.