VADODARA, Aug 18: Traffic diversion, between Kala Ghoda Circle and Jail Road, which had been carried out by the traffic police on experimental basis came under criticism as cutting across party lines the councillors demanded review of the arrangement.Raising the issue in the General Board meeting, former Mayor Dalsukh Prajapati said that the police department should have taken the mayor, if not all the councillors, into confidence, before introducing the changes.As the councillors pointed out that the diversion in the peak hours continued even after five days of trial was over, Mayor Bharati Vyas said that she would take up the matter with Police Commissioner Kuldip Sharma.Asserting that the opposition would fully support her, if she took up the matter with the police chief, Prajapati pointed out that in the past changes were effected only after consulting those at the ``helm of affairs'' in the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC). He also demanded that a unanimous resolution be adopted by the Board to stop the traffic diversion.While Lokshahi Morcha councillor Chandrakant Shrivastav alleged that on Tuesday, an ambulance going to the SSG Hospital was asked to take a circular route, local area Councillor Dipika Thakkar said the diversion had become a nuisance.Bhupendra Patel of the BJP said such arrangements could be effected only after taking other semi-government agencies into confidence. Planning traffic diversion on a scientific-basis was essential, he added.He also questioned as to why the traffic police did not initiate action against larri-galla owners operating on the roads.Deputy Mayor Dinesh Chokshi specified to the Board that the arrangement was on an experimental basis and that the police department had invited suggestions from the masses.
