Date:16/08/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/08/16/stories/2004081613940300.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Why cannot protests be held at a designated place?

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, AUG. 15. Protest rallies and processions by different organisations this week and the last created chaos on many city roads.

The latest was the procession by the film industry in which many leading stars took part, resulting in even Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) buses being diverted.

Proposal

The police have reportedly sent to the Government a proposal for earmarking certain places close enough to the Vidhana Soudha but not too close as to pose any security threat.

If the plan had not been kept pending for almost six months, the former Central Jail premises on Seshadri Road or the Central College Grounds would have been the venue for all processions to culminate, after taking short routes avoiding main roads.

The city police had made these suggestions, as the Freedom Park, coming up on the old jail premises, is spacious enough to accommodate a few thousand protestors at a time.

The Central College Grounds, though less spacious, is not far from the centre of power either.

Motive

The idea is to persuade protestors to assemble at one location, after a short procession, shout and wave as many banners and placards as they want to, without disrupting traffic and inconveniencing ordinary commuters, police officials say. If possible, they would welcome a ban on all processions and just have the protestors assemble at any one place.

Disruption

Most processions start from Chiklalbagh or Banappa Park and go through Mysore Bank Circle, Kempe Gowda Road, Hudson Circle, KR Circle, GPO and end near the Gopal Gowda Circle, not far from the Vidhana Soudha.

This leads to disruption of traffic on JC Road, Seshadri Road, KH Road, Raja Ram Mohun Roy Road, Lalbagh Road, Kasturba Road, MG Road, Kasturba Road, Residency Road, T. Chowdiah Road and Palace Road. Often BMTC buses are diverted from these roads and this causes confusion among commuters.

Close to one lakh vehicles are estimated to pass through Hudson Circle and the surrounding roads during peak hours.

The density is about 12,000 vehicles at Mysore Bank Circle and 14,000 vehicles at Anand Rao Circle.

More than six roads around Hudson Circle and Vidhana Soudha are one-ways and converge on important road junctions.

Diverting vehicles away from these roads throws into disarray traffic in the entire central district of the city.