Trinamool protesters throw traffic off-gear in central Kolkata

“We demand the immediate arrest of the chief minister who has blood on his hands. Till date,168 of our supporters have been killed by armed CPM cadres in the districts,” said Trinamool MLA Madan Mitra,while his supporters blocked Dorina Crossing in the afternoon.

The police were informed that the supporters of Trinamool Youth Congress Committee would organise a rally at Metro Channel to protest against CPM’s atrocities on their followers across the state and price hike of essential commodities. Instead,thousands of Trinamool activists blocked the Dorina Crossing.

Ironically,the Trinamool leaders blamed the traffic disruption on the police.

Following the road block,almost all important intersections were clogged with buses,mini-buses,taxis and other vehicles standing bumper-to-bumper,with the traffic police having a tough time controlling the situation.

As the police had no prior information,no plan was in place and common people faced a lot of problems in parking their vehicles or reaching their destinations. Being a week day,home-bound commuters were the worst affected as most them had to walk for few miles to reach Sealdah and Howrah stations.

Traffic police had to divert the north-bound traffic through RR Avenue,Ganesh Chandra Avenue and B B Ganguly Street. The police had to put up “No-Entry” on J L Nehru Road,S N Banerjee Road,Lenin Sarani,C R Avenue and several other vital arterial connections to the utter inconvenience of city people.

Senior police officers,including Ranvir Kumar,joint commissioner (traffic),rushed to the site to control the situation. Later,the supporters led by two MLAs,Madan Mitra and Swarnakamal Saha,marched towards Bentinck Street,but were arrested by the police.