The ruler has vacated his house but the road barricades put up for his safety remain. Nearly two weeks after former Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy vacated the official camp-office-cum-residence on super busy Somajiguda-Greenlands stretch, half the road space along it continues to remain closed for traffic and pedestrians.
Traffic slowdown
The road space adjacent to the camp office was earmarked for the movement of Chief Minister’s convoy on ‘security grounds’ a few years ago. Blocking almost half the road space on one side of the median resulted in slowing down of the traffic flow and frequent congestion on this crowded route. Initially, pedestrians were allowed to walk through this passage when the CM was away from the camp office.
But, when some agitators during the Telangana stir managed to reach close to the camp office to stage demonstrations, the police completely blocked one end of the passage by putting up massive steel barricades and barbed wire bundles.
This forced the pedestrians to walk on the main road and risk getting hit by speeding vehicles as the footpath too, along the passage way, was enclosed within the fence.
“Policemen shouting at people trying to use the barricaded space for walking were humiliating. For a while they even had the temerity to put up a sign that it is not a pedestrian path,” says Shyam of Somajiguda.
“We bore the torture for so many years. But now that Chief Minister himself is not living here, why can’t the police remove the barricade and fence for traffic to flow and pedestrians to walk safely and in peace?” wonder commuters passing by the road.
