Jittery cops barricade roads to Parliament to stop Sikh protest
8 May 2013 6:35 AM IST
In a bid to curb Sikh protests against Sajjan Kumar’s acquittal in an anti-Sikh riot case in the Parliament House area, Delhi police on Tuesday put barricades on roads and streets leading to it, causing traffic jams and inconvenience to thousands of commuters. 'The Parliament is in session and to thwart protests in the sensitive area we have closed movement on these roads,' said a police official.
For the past few days, Sikh protestors agitating against the acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar by a Delhi court in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, have been detained after repeated attempts to march towards the Parliament House and hold protests on roads leading to it.
Raising slogans against the government, the protesters had marched to Vijay Chowk, a crucial crossroad between the Parliament House complex and the North and South blocks that house the prime minister's office and the home, defence, finance and foreign ministries on Monday. The road also leads to Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The protest created a major traffic snarl, in the Race Course Road area, and traffic movement had been reduced to a crawl in places like Parliament Street, India Gate, Raisina Road, Rajpath and Sansad Marg.
Later all such roads which lead towards India Gate had been blocked by the police. On Monday, several MPs had been forced to walk to the Parliament House because of the protests in that area.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had expressed his displeasure over the police's inability to contain the protests near Parliament House and also sought a report of the incident.
Thus, the cops went on an overdrive to avoid any such situation on Tuesday, and put up barricades on roads leading to the Parliament House early in the morning, resulting in huge traffic chaos in the area.
Amit Singh, a banker who lives in west Delhi, said, 'Usually it takes me 20 minutes to travel from my home to my office in Connaught Place, but today it took me an hour to cover half that distance.'
Added Rajiv Sharma, another commuter, 'I was supposed to go to New Delhi Railway Station to board a train but it took an hour to cross the Raisina Road crossing where usually it takes only twenty - twenty-five minutes.’
For the past few days, Sikh protestors agitating against the acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar by a Delhi court in a case related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, have been detained after repeated attempts to march towards the Parliament House and hold protests on roads leading to it.
Raising slogans against the government, the protesters had marched to Vijay Chowk, a crucial crossroad between the Parliament House complex and the North and South blocks that house the prime minister's office and the home, defence, finance and foreign ministries on Monday. The road also leads to Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The protest created a major traffic snarl, in the Race Course Road area, and traffic movement had been reduced to a crawl in places like Parliament Street, India Gate, Raisina Road, Rajpath and Sansad Marg.
Later all such roads which lead towards India Gate had been blocked by the police. On Monday, several MPs had been forced to walk to the Parliament House because of the protests in that area.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had expressed his displeasure over the police's inability to contain the protests near Parliament House and also sought a report of the incident.
Thus, the cops went on an overdrive to avoid any such situation on Tuesday, and put up barricades on roads leading to the Parliament House early in the morning, resulting in huge traffic chaos in the area.
Amit Singh, a banker who lives in west Delhi, said, 'Usually it takes me 20 minutes to travel from my home to my office in Connaught Place, but today it took me an hour to cover half that distance.'
Added Rajiv Sharma, another commuter, 'I was supposed to go to New Delhi Railway Station to board a train but it took an hour to cross the Raisina Road crossing where usually it takes only twenty - twenty-five minutes.’
Next Story
