Kolkata: Traffic in the city was thrown out of gear due to a demonstration staged by BJP supporters and workers on Thursday afternoon. The party workers and supporters had assembled near Deshapriya Park and then started marching towards Hazra crossing.
They were protesting in connection with the issue of the National Register of Citizen (NRC) in Assam. Police stopped the procession when it reached Hazra crossing. They staged a sit-in-demonstration at the crossing, which led to massive traffic congestion.
Movement of traffic at the crossing remained suspended for around an hour from 2.15 pm. The party supporters finally withdrew the roadblock at around 3 pm.
Long queues of vehicles were noticed on several roads due to the roadblock. Though the police tried to keep the vehicles moving by diverting buses and other vehicles through other roads, the roadblock at a crucial intersection like Hazra left an adverse effect on the city's traffic movement.
People were highly inconvenienced due to the traffic congestion as they got delayed in reaching their destinations.
Monotosh Jha, a resident of North Kolkata, said: "I had to reach Tollygunge by 2.30 pm. But the vehicles in which I was travelling got stuck in the traffic congestion and got delayed." He was finally found leaving the vehicle to walk towards the nearest Metro station to take a train to Tollygunge.