Congress show leads to commuters’ woes

After the Nationalist Congress Party’s road stunt last week, it was the turn of Congress on Thursday.

Several Puneites found themselves stranded in traffic jams as rallies carried out by the party’s aspiring candidates to appear for the interviews at the Congress Bhavan resulted in snarls in various parts of the city during peak morning hours.
Worst hit were the office goers and students.

Adding to the commuters’ woes, the traffic police directed them to take the old Mumbai-Pune highway to facilitate the ongoing construction work of grade separator near Sancheti hospital. As a result, the old highway was blocked for nearly half-an-hour.
Roads in Pune station area, Shivaji road, Jangli Maharaj road, Old Mumbai- Pune highway too were blocked for nearly an hour.
Party workers started conducting interviews of the aspiring candidates for Pune Municipal elections on Thursday and the candidates appearing for the interviews started reaching Congress Bhavan along with hoards of supporters to show their strength.

Ravindra Nadkarni, one of the agitated commuters said, “I had to go from Kothrud to Pune station in the morning, but when I reached Jangli Maharaj road, I could not move my vehicle for nearly half-an-hour. I was helplessly watching the rallies of these candidates.”

Sandeep Kulkarni, another commuter said, “These candidates had turned blind towards the traffic jams and I wonder how they are going to serve us if they get selected.”

When contacted, deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Vishwas Pandhare, said, “Candidates of various parties are taking out the rallies which is the major cause of traffic jams. These candidates should ask there supporters to gather at the interview place in small groups rather than taking out rallies.”