Traffic crawls in Delhi-NCR due to road closures over Bharat Bandh, Cong protests

Commuters had a harrowing time as traffic crawled for several hours on key arterial stretches entering Delhi from neighbouring towns due to barricades put up by police in the wake of Bharat Bandh and protest by Congress over the Agnipath defence recruitment scheme and ''vendetta politics'' against Rahul Gandhi.

Long queues of vehicles were seen at Delhi's borders, including the entry point from Noida via DND, Chilla border, Delhi-Gurugram expressway and Ghazipur.

Commuters from Noida and Gurugram were left hassled as they battled traffic snarls while driving into the city whereas inside the capital, Lutyens' Delhi, which was the epicentre of protests, remained chock-a-block. Commuters were left stranded at a number of locations in the capital such as Connaught Place, Jantar Mantar, Barapullah corridor, Ring Road, Vikas Marg, and ITO among others, due to the protests.

Protests against the Centre's Agnipath scheme not only affected traffic on the roads. Indian Youth Congress workers also stopped a train at the Shivaji Bridge railway station near Connaught Place here to protest against the questioning of Rahul Gandhi's by the Enforcement Directorate and to push for their demand for a rollback of the scheme.

This again led to inconvenience to passengers travelling trough trains to reach their destinations in the region.

The track was cleared by police and security personnel and train movement resumed after about half an hour, sources said.

Gandhi on Monday appeared before the ED for the fourth day of questioning in the National Herald money laundering case. Protests have erupted in various parts of the country after the Centre unveiled the Agnipath scheme last Tuesday to recruit youngsters aged between 17-and-a-half and 21 years in the army, navy and air force, largely on a four-year contractual basis. It later relaxed the upper age limit for this year's recruitment to 23. ''Queues of vehicles remained stranded in a traffic jam on the Noida side of the border due to the barricades put up by the police at DND entry point. It was a massive jam and I was stuck there for over half-an-hour,'' Pawan Prajapati, a commuter, lamented.

While the call for Bharat Bandh by some organisations choked traffic on several arterial roads, no impact was seen in the city's markets where it was business as usual.

Videos of long queues of vehicles at Delhi's borders emerged on social media while several commuters also took to Twitter to share their woes. Due to protests and to prevent any untoward incident, the Delhi police had intensified checking of vehicles at border points, which meant that there was a long wait for people to reach their destinations. Several roads were also heavily barricaded in Lutyens' Delhi, which forced commuters to opt for alternate routes, thereby leading to more chaos on the roads. Vineeta Pandey, who drives from Noida Extension to her office at ITO everyday, said, ''There was heavy traffic at UP gate and after I entered Delhi, there was a massive jam between Akshardham to Bhairon Mandir. ''The situation was extremely chaotic. On Monday, there is always more movement on roads since it's the start of the week and today's protests and the Bharat Bandh call compounded the woes of many like me.'' The Delhi-Gurugram Expressway also witnessed heavy traffic jam due to the Bharat Bandh call over the Centre's Agnipath scheme.

A massive pile-up was seen on the expressway near the Sirhaul border as the Delhi Police was inspecting every vehicle before it entered the capital, to ensure law and order. The gridlock began around 8:30 am and grew worse during the peak hours.

Inside the capital, calls for rollback of Agnipath defence recruitment scheme gathered steam as various organisations came out to voice their dissent.

IYC workers also gathered at Connaught Place to protest against the ''vendetta politics'' against Rahul Gandhi and the Centre's scheme.

At the Jantar Mantar, senior Congress leaders P Chidambaram, KC Venugopal, Sachin Pilot, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gelot headlined a demonstration over the twin issues.

In view of Bharat Bandh, the Delhi Police had tightened security across the national capital and its bordering areas and warned of strict action against those trying to disrupt the law and order situation.

Also, keeping in mind the Congress' protest against the ED's questioning Gandhi in a money laundering case, adequate security arrangements were put in place and strict vigil was kept as per intelligence input, police said. Commercial markets in Delhi also remained open and usual activities were held despite the call for Bharat Bandh, said traders' associations. The bandh's impact was not seen in many markets, including Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Nagar, Palika Bazar and Khan Market, they added. PTI AKM SLB AKM TDS TDS