KOCHI: Fed up with getting stuck in heavy traffic blocks in the city owing to rallies and demonstrations, Kochiites have demanded a permanent solution to rid the city of traffic jams.
According to them, the authorities should make Kochi a non-demonstration and rally zone and allot a stretch specifically for holding protests as done in cities like New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
The demand has gained strength a day after the Unity March taken out by Popular Front of India to mark Popular Front Day on Monday choked the city’s roads. Earlier, frequent protests and rallies against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act had also hit traffic movement in the city.
City police officers said in New Delhi, Jantar Mantar was the official venue for protests, before Ramleela Maidan was made the designated for the same. They said the Bengaluru police had reduced the protest venues to areas like Freedom Park, Bannappa Park, Town Hall and Maurya Circle, thereby omitting the busy MG Road and Brigade Road.
“A rally on the busy Banerji Road here affects traffic and nearby areas come to a standstill,” they said. The High Court had imposed curbs on holding public rallies and meetings by political parties and other organisations in the city. As per the court’s directive, organisers of the processions or the meetings should give prior intimation to the police. However, 80 per cent of the rallies and demonstrations are held without the police’s permission, said the officers.
“Protests or marches that disrupt public transport and people’s lives could never be accepted. Whenever an organisation plans such activity, people suffer. Many emergency services get stuck in traffic. Productive hours are lost. The organisations should find a better way to protest instead of causing trouble to people,” said Sita Mary Thomas, a techie.