Police diverts traffic, throws spanner in Cong. plans

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM, MAY 8. The Congress was literally made to go the extra mile by the city police in giving effect to its much- publicised rasta-roko programme in the city on Tuesday.

In what was a rare scene, district Congress leaders, casting aside their differences, jointly descended on the Maddelapalem junction led by Mr.M. Satyanarayana Rao, APCC chief, for imposing a traffic blockade only to find the intersection devoid of any passing vehicle.

The rasta-roko was part of a Statewide agitation of the party to protest against the "anti-farmer and anti-people policies" of the Telugu Desam Government, but thanks to the adroit planning of the police, the Congress had to virtually go in search of vehicular traffic to execute their rasta-roko.

Normally a busy traffic intersection, the Maddelapalem junction, overlooking a bus depot of the APSRTC and bisected by the National Highway No.5, wore a forlorn look when the Congress rally reached the place at 11.30 a.m. from the airport.

A police officer told The Hindu: "We made sure the vehicular traffic was diverted through alternative routes and bylanes and that this intersection was free of any vehicular flow at the time of the rasta roko. Traffic is flowing unhindered. This has never happened before."

Coming as it did after a long gap, the Congress's agitation programme was elaborately planned and tom-tommed with arrangements made at the venue for drinking water, a tent erected on the traffic island, banners strung across the road, dance and music rendered by folk artistes and bursting of crackers and party workers mobilised from all over the district. Alas, all that the Congress found at the place chosen for the rasta roko were their own cars, jeeps, trucks and two-wheelers. Youth Congress and National Students Union of India workers were heard saying that the party instead of publicising the venue of the agitation should have sprung a surprise on the police.

Braving the sweltering heat and still unaware that the police had diverted the traffic, the Congress leaders, including Mr. Satyanarayana Rao, Mr. Dronamraju Satyanarayana, Mr.T. Subbarami Reddy, Mr. Konathala Ramakrishna and Mr. Gudivada Gurunadha Rao, former MPs, Mr. Sabbam Hari, former Mayor, Mr. Balbir Singh, AICC secretary, and Mr.P. Sudhakar Reddy, AP Youth Congress president, squatted on the simmering road hoping to stall the traffic flow.

As it dawned on the leaders that the police had tricked them, they marched on the deserted stretch of NH-5 towards Isukathota. En route, finding an APSRTC sneaking into a street, Youth Congress workers pounced on it, some frenzied youth among them smashing the windowpanes with their fists and deflating the tyres. With renewed vigour, the protesters trudged a kilometer more before--to their relief--finally encountering vehicles in full flow at the Venkojipalem junction where the traffic was being diverted by the police. The Congress leaders blocked the traffic and courted arrest.

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