Commuters bear brunt of admn apathy

Lucknow: Traffic mayhem in the city because of Anganwadi workers taking to streets gave hell to commuters at all major crossings from Charbagh to Gole market from 10am to 9pm on Tuesday. The snarls had a cascading effect on all arterial routes connecting city to trans-Gomti and even smaller routes like the Park road in Hazratganj and bylanes of Nishatganj remained jampacked.
Vishal Mishra got stuck in the bottleneck for two hours at KKC trisection on his way to receive his uncle at Charbagh railway station. He said, "Thousands of Anganwadi workers from various neighbouring districts arrived in buses and flocked to the roads, blocking movement of vehicles and it is surprising that traffic police had no plan in place to check this situation."
Akanksha Singh, a CA whose office is on Sapru Marg said, "I had a meeting with an international client in the office, but I got late in reaching by three hours."
Utkarsh Tewari, delivery boy of a private company said Nishatganj flyover was choc-a-block for several hours and there was no traffic policeman to manage.
Nidhi Agarwal was stranded at Lohia path and when she tried to come via Rana Pratap Marg it was also blocked. " I have been standing here for past four hours," she said.
R K Pandey, who works in railways got stuck in the jam for two hours at Burlington crossing. He said, "People are jumping the queue and moving on the wrong side which is disrupting the flow of traffic."
School children were worst sufferers, besides those returning from office who were caught up for several hours. Many ambulances were also stuck in the jam.
Traffic circle officer Rajesh Tewari said things got worse because after protesting at Lakshman Mela Sthal, the Anganwadi workers decided to move towards Sankalp Vatika and decided to sit on both sides of Ashok marg, thereby disrupting movement of traffic from Charbagh to Gole market.