Heightened police checking causes jam on DND Flyway
NOIDA: A number of commuters were stuck in a snarl on the DND Flyway on Monday morning as police set up barricades to check vehicles in the wake of protests at several places in the city over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. Noida police diverted Delhi-bound traffic to the Chilla border, while vehicular movement remained slow between 8am and 11am, officials said.
A police team headed by deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Ganesh Prasad Saha remained at the flyway all morning. Saha said that the Delhi Police had set up barricades on their side at the DND Flyway. “The Noida police also put up barricades to check vehicles entering Noida. This slowed down vehicular movement on the DND Flyway. We diverted the traffic to the Chilla border but due to the high volume of traffic, vehicular movement was slow at Chilla border too,” he said.
Brajesh Sharma, a resident of Antriksh Golf View 2, Noida’s Sector 78, said that he was stuck for 50 minutes while on his way to Delhi. “Police were randomly checking vehicles. This led to a massive jam on the DND Flyway,” he said.
Several commuters took to social media to enquire about the traffic situation. Ashish Jain, a commuter, tagged Noida traffic police in a tweet, seeking information about the expected time by which the jam would end.
The police said that the Film City road (Noida-greater Noida side) was also congested as workers were fixing streetlights.
Meanwhile, several groups of farmers and members of opposition parties protested at several places in the city over violence in Lakhimpur Kheri, in which eight people, including farmers, were killed on Sunday.
Members of the Bharatiya
Kisan Union (Ambawata) held a protest outside the Noida city magistrate’s office. Rajesh Upadhyaya, Gautam Budh Nagar district president of the BKU faction, said that the farmers are pained over the incident. “The government is behaving as if farmers are their enemy. We demand compensation and jobs to the deceased farmers’ kin,” he said.
Another group of farmers also protested at the district collectorate in Surajpur.
Rajesh S, deputy commissioner of police, Noida, said some protesters were detained. “They were released later. No case was registered against them,” he said.
Uma Shankar Singh, Noida city magistrate, said that he received the memorandums from different groups over the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. “We will forward these memorandums to the government. The protest was peaceful,” he said.
Dadri police station