Left rally to Lalbazar chokes arterial roads in city

Kolkata: Left Front's march to the Kolkata Police's headquarters at Lalbazar on Wednesday evening led to massive traffic congestion in the central business district.

The Left Front supporters started marching from Subodh Mallick Square. The rally passed through the major thoroughfares in the central business district leaving vehicles to stand in queues bumper-to-bumper.

A large contingent of police, Rapid Action Force and water cannon were kept ready apprehending trouble during the rally. Left Front leaders and workers were stopped near the crossing of Bentinck Street and Ganesh Chandra Avenue.

Security barricades were placed in order to limit the agitators. The additional policemen were deployed and necessary measures were taken to avoid any untoward incident as it had happened earlier during a rally of the Left Front a few months ago.

But unlike previous such rallies, the Left Front supporters didn't attempt to break the barricades as an attempt to reach forcefully to the city police's headquarters. Only some representatives went inside and submitted their memorandum to a senior police officer of the Kolkata Police.

There are mainly government and private offices in the area. The rally, however, led to inconvenience of people who were returning home from offices. People were found walking a few kilometres to get a bus or a taxi to reach their destinations.

The rally has left an adverse affect on normal movement of traffic on certain stretches of roads including Bentinck Street, Chittaranjan Avenue and other arterial roads.

The traffic police, however, did their level best to keep the vehicles moving. But the situation turned worse when the rally passed through the important roads of the central business district.

Manoj Ghosh, an employee of a private company, said: "I had to reach home by 6.30 pm to take my mother to the doctor. But I am not sure whether I can reach or not due to the traffic congestion."