Srinagar, July 27: Traffic jams affected the public movement in the summer capital Tuesday as life limped back to normal for a day in line with the calendar announced by the Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Geelani.
 Gridlocks could be seen on most routes since early morning when children left for their schools. The chaos peaked during rush hours of 9 to 11 AM and did not reduce even afterwards.
 Officials said over four lakh vehicles zoomed past the City including a considerable number of them pouring in from other districts of the Valley.
 With authorities failing to streamline the flow, it was a day of traffic chaos.
The complaints
 Arshad Ahmed Khan of uptown Soura said he couldn’t drop his wife at her office enroute Rambagh in time due to traffic jams and eventually reached his own workplace late.
 “This was despite the fact that anticipating jams, we had left our home early by an hour,” Khan told Greater Kashmir while blowing horns at Rambagh. Khan complained he reached office 2 hours late.
Batmaloo-Dalgate Mess
 The traffic movement on the busy 2-mile stretch remained so affected that it took many around an hour to travel the distance as the vehicles literally crawled to make their way ahead in the chaos and deafening horns.
 In between, the Munawarabad intersection and the TRC square proved a mess.
 “I remained held up in the jam at the TRC crossing for half an hour,” complained Arif Ahmed, a man from Dalgate.
 Many a government employee said they couldn’t reach their offices in time.
‘Victimized’ Lal Chowk
 The Traffic movement in the City centre of Lal Chowk remained badly affected as the state government has constructed a roadside park reducing the busy road to half.
 Despite severe criticism, the state has declined to remove the “bottleneck’ constructed in the name of beautification.
Public’s police plea
 Many a Srinagarite said if thousands of policemen could everyday be put to duty for siege of the old City, why can’t the same workforce be utilized for public assistance vis-à-vis traffic policing during relaxations.
 “When the government can deploy thousands of cops for Shahr-e-Khaas siege for weeks together, why can’t it deploy the same contingency for traffic regulation on relaxation days when it’s quite expected that the vehicular flow could be phenomenal,” argued a lawyer.
‘Mad haste’
 Observers said the massive traffic jams were the result of what they described as “mad haste.”
 “You have to accomplish the accumulated tasks of over a week in just one day. This is apt to trigger made haste in movement of people,” said a senior citizen, adding there’s a psychological reason to this unusual inflow of vehicles.
 “Because life remains paralysed for days together due to restrictions and hartals, people want to make the best use of relaxation period. But this results in a mad haste,” he added.
‘Natural reaction’
 There’s another theory to this rush. Psychiatrists term the public behaviour as “natural reaction.”
 “Life remained paralysed for days together. Now people want to make good out of this time,” said a psychiatrist working at Rainawari Hospital.
 “This is all the way a natural reaction. If you remain out for a long you have a yearning to come in. Same holds true the other way as well,” he explained.
“It’s a rebound of a situation which bores you,’ he added.
‘Unprepared cops’
 Why the traffic authorities failed to be prepared for the situation could be because the traffic cops heading the City  affairs are being frequently changed.
 In less than a month, the government has changed the SSP Traffic Srinagar thrice.
 It started from Shokat Shah who was replaced by Javed Reyaz Bedar for a few days only to be replaced by a third one.
 “Every official has his own way of managing things and it takes them sometime to set into motion. But when the officials are changed so frequently, it obviously affects the work,” said a retired police official requesting not to be named.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST