Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 1: The restrictions imposed by the authorities on free movement of vehicular traffic during the rally of BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi at M A Stadium here, today on the name of VVIP security put the life out of gear due to wrong policies of the Government and the administration.
The people especially the commuters as well as Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims coming from other States through buses and trains had to suffer a lot due to lack of transport facilities during the day.
The situation was akin to undeclared curfew in the city as hundreds of people including men women and children as well as some handicapped people who were unable to walk were put to trouble due to non availability of transport facilities in the city from early morning. They had to travel on foot along with their bag and baggage as police had erected barricades and laid concertina wire all along the B C road and Fly Over blocking main Chowks in the city right from Kunjwani to Ambphalla on B C road and Paloura to Jewel on Akhnoor road as well as Talab Tillo road.
The Mata Vaishno Devi pilgrims who reached here early in the morning by trains or buses from other States were put to lot of trouble as they had to walk kilometers together on foot along with their bag and baggage due to lack of transport facilities and mismanagement on part of administration.
Some handicapped persons too were seen walking with support of their relatives to reach their destinations due to lack of transport facilities.
The height of traffic restrictions was up to the extent that even the buses carrying media persons to Modi’s rally under police escort from PCR after their proper verifications were not allowed to go beyond the Bus Stand and two buses carrying the journalists were stopped at two places near Bus Stand where the police had erected barricades of concertina wire forcing the journalists to resort to protest and slogan shouting.
The administration came to a severe criticism for imposing restrictions on movement of vehicular traffic from the people, who said, that taking care of security is good but it should not be at the cost of common man especially the pilgrims and commuters coming from other States.
“We are not opposed to checking and other security measures but that does not mean no vehicle should be allowed to move in the city”, said Shanti Devi a pilgrim from UP. She said the Government should have made the announcement of restricting traffic movement in Jammu over fortnight back so that the pilgrims could have postponed the date of the pilgrimage.
The buses carrying reporters and photo journalists from print and electronic media who were on their way to M A Stadium in the morning were first stopped at B C road near Bus Stand where the police had created a barricade and later a furlong ahead of it.
As the men in Khaki refuted to lift the barricade and allow the buses to leave ahead for about 10 minutes the irate journalists got down from their vehicles and resorted to strong protest against the police action. They also shouted slogans. Later the barricade was removed and buses were allowed to proceed further.
After reaching a distance further they were again stopped by the men in Khaki and not allowed to proceed further. Again a high drama was witnessed for some time forcing journalists to lodge protest. Later on the intervention of some senior officers the buses were allowed to proceed further.
The BJP activists coming from Udhampur, Kathua, R S Pura, Akhnoor and other parts also said that their vehicles were not allowed to enter the city and they had to cover a long distance on foot in reaching the M A Stadium. They said the restrictions created on movement of vehicular traffic has kept a large number of people indoors otherwise the number of crowd at M A Stadium could have surpassed over two lakh.
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