Tarffic chaos in Jammu City

As the cavalcade of President Partibha Devi Singh Patil moved to and fro, from Rajbhawan to the venues, which she was scheduled to visit, complete traffic chaos and confusion prevailed in the city of temples since early this morning.

Huge traffic jams were witnessed on roads connecting the venues besides the crossings from where the cavalcades of VVIP were scheduled to pass or passed, due to non-predefined traffic restrictions. The traffic cops raised barricades and parked their vehicles in the middle of the roads abruptly totally choking the traffic flow even half-an-hour before the passing of VVIP cavalcade. They not even allowed the pedestrains to cross the roads and crossings.

There was total commotion in the city of temples due to unexpected and unplanned traffic restrictions. The people failed to understand which route they should follow in order to reach their respective destinations. The worst affected were the students and office goers besides attendants of the patients admitted in Government Medical College (GMC) and SMGS hospital.

The vehicular traffic was initially disrupted on the route between Raj Bhawan and Raghunath Temple whereas the Raghunath Temple Chowk was virtually converted into a fortress with huge deployment of cops, para-military forces, Jammu & Kashmir Armed Police (JKAP) cops, policemen in civvies and men of intelligence agencies. The whole area was declared out of bounds for the commoners and even the pilgrims and tourists from other states were not allowed to pay their obeisance prior to President’s visit. The approaching roads were sealed with parking of police vehilce in the middle of the road and erection of barricades around midnight and sharp shooters were deployed on the rooftops of adjoining buildings. The temple premises and its surroundings were thoroughly frisked by the cops and no stranger was allowed to enter the premises.

The traffic on the roads and crossing approaching Raghunath Bazar from Raj Bhawan was stopped resulting in inconvenience to locals. Huge traffic jam was witnessed at Maheshpura, and approaching roads to Flyover Crossing connecting Brigadier Rajinder Singh Chowk for an hour in the morning.

The cops reportedly did not allow the shopkeepers of Raghunath Bazar to open their shops prior to VVIP’s visit with curfew like situation all around. The shopkeepers opened their business establishments only after departure of President. Patil then flew to Katra to attend the 3rd Convocation SMVDU and after her return in the afternoon, similar traffic restrictions were seen in the city. An Ambulance bearing registration number JK02AD-6188 carrying a body was stuck up in the jam besides other vehicles.

In the evening, again similar traffic chaos was seen during VVIP’s to and fro visit to Jammu University to attend Dogra Rattan Awards function.

As per rough estimate, 60 percent commercial vehicles remained off the road here while many people opted not to come out of their houses due to traffic commotion.

However, three-tier security grid remained in place keeping in view VVIP movement in the city of temples.