Heavy rain, human chain bring city to its knees
Written by Writer on Saturday, October 25th, 2008
Heavy rain, human chain bring city to its knees
25 Oct 2008, TNN
CHENNAI: Traffic on the arterial Anna Salai in the city was thrown into chaos on Friday due to the pouring rain and the human chain formed by political parties to express solidarity with Tamils caught in the war in Sri Lanka.
The chain, broken though it was at many places despite school and college students forming captive links, added to the misery of those stuck in traffic jams.
Rain lashed the city from 3 pm, inundating not just the usually vulnerable areas, but even roads and plots usually safe from flooding. As roads went under sheets of water and the human chain took shape on Anna Salai, vehicles moved bumper to bumper on many of the main roads.
Vehicles which tried to take a detour added to traffic jams on Nungambakkam High Road, Triplicane High Road and Arcot Road. The city’s entry points remained clogged from afternoon. The worst-affected were school children returning home, as the downpour and the political roadshow held up their vans for several hours.
“My son, who usually comes home at 4.30 pm from his school in RA Puram, today reached home at 8.10 pm. Like him, 15 other children in the van were on the verge of collapse as they had no food or water for several hours,” said Bhavani of Adambakkam.
Flooding of rails near Guindy delayed the suburban train services. Air passengers complained that they missed flights because they could not reach the airport in time.
As yet another political show rolled out on Chennai’s arterial roads, all hell broke loose. The human chain to express solidarity with Sri Lankan Tamils weaved through the arterial Mount Road throwing traffic out of gear, and leaving commuters, office-goers, students and even young children stranded for hours on the road.
Over the years, politicians have used public utilities, main roads and streets to promote their parties and propagate their cause, but the human chain which stretched from Tambaram to Kamaraj road would still count among the biggest crowd-mobilising exercises seen in Chennai.
Although there are no clear judicial directives with regard to the organising of such events, , it was only last June that the Madras high court had placed restrictions on public meetings so that they caused as little inconvenience as possible to the public and did not disrupt traffic during the rush hour.
Ensuring that roads were not blocked and sufficient space was given for free movement of vehicles and pedestrians was a key element in the ruling.
Even though a human chain programme may not strictly fall under the category of public meetings, the spirit of the order was that the people were not put to great hardship during political gatherings.
These directives were clearly flouted on Friday as thousands of political activists and students were mobilised for the human chain.
Civic activists are of the view that the rally could have easily been organised at a location less inconvenient to residents to achieve the same effect. Instead, the show, which had clear political overtones, saw even chief minister M Karunanidhi’s family members standing in the human chain, unmindful of being drenched in the rain.
“The most pitiable was the plight of schoolchildren and college students who stood shivering in the rain, intimidated by teachers, waiting for the chief minister to pass by,” said a motorist on condition of anonymity.
While the heavy rains may have contributed to the traffic chaos on Friday, the question on many people’s minds was whether such protests really achieve the purpose for which they are held.
