Kullu cops away on poll duty, commuters face traffic chaos

Abhinav Vashisht

Kullu, May 31

With the traffic police personnel deployed on election duties, serpentine queues of vehicles were witnessed at major roads of the district today.

Traffic moved at a snail’s pace as several intersections on various stretches were clogged with haphazard vehicles and cops were nowhere in sight. The commuters and tourists were stuck in massive traffic jams for long hours.

With many district police personnel engaged in poll duties and no additional police force, that’s usually provided during summer months, was available to regulate traffic snarls. The traffic flow was diverted through alternative routes in the wake of the visit of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath yesterday. The police personnel were not able to control the vehicular movement even after the CM departed in a helicopter after the election rally.

Locals question high security

Such tight security arrangements were not made even during the visit of AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on May 29 or even during earlier visits of various CMs or VVIPs. — Sanjeev, a resident

As the tourist influx has increased at various places of the district, many roads are being choked in Manali, Manikaran, Jibhi and other tourist hotspots.

Further, the partially repaired roads were adding to the woes of the commuters.

The problem of traffic jams is arising every day in the religious town of Manikaran. Long queues of vehicles are seen on the 35-km Bhuntar-Manikaran road at Kasol, Manikaran, Suma Ropa, Sarsari and other places.

Lack of police personnel has further escalated the predicament. Bottlenecks are also being witnessed on Manali-Palchan, Hadimba and Vashisht roads.

Anila, another resident, lamented that some drivers were flouting rules and were commuting on the wrong side of the road. She said, “The violators are throwing caution to the wind and they should be penalised.”

There are a total of 628 police personnel and 130 Home Guards in the district. Additional forces of about 350 police personnel and 150 Home Guards are sought during the tourist season, but these were not provided this year due to their election duties.

Kullu SP Karthikeyan Gokulachandran said that police personnel have been deployed to ensure smooth flow of traffic at various tourist spots.