Thursday, 24 March 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The swearing-in ceremony of chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and his cabinet colleagues on the Parade Ground exacerbated the traffic woes in various parts of the city on Wednesday. Even as traffic on major routes was diverted with the area around the Parade Ground being declared a zero zone, people struggled in major traffic congestion in various parts of the city spending a lot more time, effort and fuel while facing inconvenience to cover even short distances.
Office goer Priya Bansal who travels from Ladpur to reach her office in Patelnagar said that she was aware about the traffic congestion so she changed her usual route to office and drove through another route but even then she was 45 minutes late for office.
School student Viva Nautiyal said that it took her two hours to reach her home in Dharampur whereas usually it takes an hour for her to return home from her school on Rajpur Road.
A citizen who wished to remain anonymous opined that such ceremonies should not be held in public places as they hamper the routine life of citizens.
Police personnel also faced difficulties in managing the situation and tackling citizens irritated by the travails caused by the function on Parade Ground. A home guard at Prince Chowk averred that his senior was manhandled by a Vikram driver while they were preventing him from entering the zero zone. A bike taxi driver, Sanjay Negi said that due to the route diversions, he had to cover longer distances than usual to pick and drop the passengers despite which the customers insisted on paying the fare shown in the app used for such services.
