Too much restrictions annoy puja revellers

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 25 SEPT: Many, including political leaders of Malda have expressed unhappiness with the “excess” in traffic and other restrictions in the name of security and crowd control by the police in English Bazaar town since 5.30 p.m. yesterday.

People faced difficulty in reaching the district hospital, nursing homes and railway station yesterday as a profusion of drop gates rigged by the police prevented movement of small vehicles and rickshaws too. The drop gates are posing a restriction in accessing the National Highway 34, hospitals, railway stations and bus stands from 5.30 p.m. to 2 a.m. through the arterial roads in English Bazaar town.

“Yesterday was the last working day before the Puja holidays began. Many people had important jobs in offices till late evening. Many were returning home after office hours. There was no need to execute the system from yesterday. The police should have kept a few of the arterial roads open,” said Mr Indranil Biswas, a local.

The Left Front chairman and CPI-M district secretary Mr Jiban Moitra said: “The police cannot and should not have blocked the arterial roads without having arranged alternative routes. Many people have suffered yesterday.”

“Hundreds of people had to reach the railway station to board the Gour Express around 8.30 p.m. The closed roads were a major hindrance for them,” he added. According to him, the police unnecessarily prevented some NBSTC buses entering into the corporation depot last evening as well. “Those buses were coming from distant areas including Kolkata. The police should have allowed those buses to reach the depot for maintenance and other requirements,” he added.

“Excessive” traffic restriction has offended the people as well. The elderly cannot move from one pandal to another on foot under a blazing sun and the rickshaws are withdrawn after 2 p.m. due to traffic regulations. The system is depriving them, is the common refrain.

Commenting that the police should redraw its plan, the English Bazaar Congress MLA Mr Krishnendu Choudhury said that the political parties should also have foreseen the problem and alerted the police accordingly during a meeting on the subject before the Puja began.