Chaos on roads due to Latifpura march, shobha yatra

Jalandhar, December 20

A huge tractor protest march was taken out by farmers in support of the families going homeless in Latifpura in the afternoon followed by a massive shobha yatra taken out to mark the Christmas celebrations in the city in the evening clogged all city roads till late evening.

The tractor march moved slowly through the city roads passing through the busy areas of Model Town market, Company Bagh Chowk and Guru Nanak Mission Chowk. The march that started around 1 pm continued till 2:30 pm. This resulted in the traffic congestion along all connected roads for more than an hour. While bikers and scooterists could still manage to zip past the roads, those commuting by cars got stuck for over half an hour as it became a bumper-to-bumper traffic.

As soon as this traffic congestion began to ease out, a huge shobha yatra for Christmas that started from a church in Khambra village entered the city via Nakodar road to reach the Company Bagh. Thousands of Lord Jesus followers on vehicles and foot carrying his ‘cross’ placards bearing the message of Lord Jesus were on city roads again. Since Jyoti Chowk got clogged, the traffic was diverted towards Skylark Chowk and Guru Nanak Mission Chowk which again got blocked. Some commuters used the narrow inner lanes to bypass the traffic.

Several parents complained that their children reached home from school late as their buses, vans and autorickshaws got stuck up in the traffic. “My daughter, whose school ends at 2:30 pm is usually back home by 2:50 pm but today her bus did not reach home till 3:15 pm and I was worried. She came home and told that they were caught up in a jam”, said Jasmine, a Model Town resident.

Since 5 pm to 6 pm is the usual time for the offices to close and the employees to reach back home, the rush in the evening remained all time high. It was around 7:30 pm that the congestion on roads got eased out.