Jammu, Jan 28: Shoba Yatra, a procession ahead of Shri Guru Ravi Dass Jayanti to be celebrated on January 30, brought the winter capital of the state to a stand still on Thursday.
 The traffic system in the entire city, especially old city, was brought to halt after traffic cops were caught unprepared and unorganized.
 The Prakash Utsav started from the main Guru Ravi Dass Temple here, in which hundreds of devotees from across the state formed a long chain on buses, trolleys and tractors.
 Tableaus were decorated with buntings and flowers, while children attired as Shri Guru Ravi Dass, also performed dramas depicting Guru’s life.
 However, the city came to a standstill and commuters faced tough time for around three hours due to long traffic jams because of the Yatra.
 The office goers were the worst sufferers as main routes were blocked and traffic at various places was diverted leading to a chaos and confusion.
 Sources told Greater Kashmir that principal secretary home Verghese Samuel, who is presently holding the additional charge as Chief Secretary, was also caught for around an hour in traffic jam near civil secretariat.
 The in-charge CS had reportedly left the civil secretariat to attend an official meeting, without informing the traffic cops, who came to know about the matter only when they were ranged up by the senior officers.
 It was reliably learnt that after being caught in the traffic jam, Samuel ranged up Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda and informed him about the matter. The DGP immediately asked the IG Traffic to look into the matter.
 The traffic officials rushed to the spot and cleared the cavalcade of the CS. However, sources said, the IGP (Traffic) has sought an explanation from the concerned traffic officials as under what circumstances the cavalcade of the chief secretary was caught in the traffic jam.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 IST