LUCKNOW: Commuters had a harrowing time on Tuesday as the road between Globe Park and Sikanderbagh Crossing was chock-a-block with vehicles due to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s march on International Women’s Day.
Traffic police diverted the buses moving towards Chirayi Jheel to Sikanderbagh and rerouted traffic from Sikanderbagh Crossing towards Nishatganj, exacerbating massive congestion on Shahnajaf Road and Rana Pratap Marg.
Commuters were caught unawares as no advisory was issued. Aryan Srivastava, a student of National PG College, remained stuck on Rana Pratap Marg for two hours. “There was no advisory on social media. If this was done, I would have not faced this ordeal,” he said.
Carrying pink balloons and flags with ‘ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon’ written on them, a large number of people, including women from across the state, participated in the march. Police said they were informed that only 250 people would attend the march, but actual numbers were higher.
Simran Singh, a commuter, said it took her 1.5 hours to move from Globe Park to Rana Pratap Marg as vehicles moved bumper to bumper.
DCP Subhash Chandra Shakya said, “We did not expect such massive crowd. We had to divert raffic to regulate the flow.”
On being asked about social media alerts, the DCP said, “We were busy regulating traffic and did not have an idea that we can use our social media account to inform people.”
