While Bengaluru city is known for its chaotic traffic, forcing commuters to spend hours on the road, the snarled-up traffic of Mahakumbh pilgrims to reach Prayagraj on Sunday seems to have outdone it. Devotees complained vehicles were stuck for over 300 kilometres, forcing the Madhya Pradesh government to suspend traffic on roads leading to Prayagraj.
Heavy traffic and overcrowding over the weekend forced Madhya Pradesh police to stop traffic movement in a few of its cities. According to authorities, traffic snarls extending up to 200-300 km involving vehicles were noticed on roads leading to Prayagraj. Eyewitnesses told PTI that huge traffic jams across a 250-km stretch from Katni to MP-UP borders at Chakghat in Rewa district.
Saket Prakash Pandey, In-charge Inspector General of Police (Rewa zone) said the situation will ease in a couple of days. Commuters told PTI that it took almost 10-12 hours to cover a 50-km distance.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav slammed the Uttar Pradesh government for poor traffic management and charged the traffic congestion has even affected supplies of essential goods to Prayagraj.
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Saying the Uttar Pradesh chief minister and deputy chief minister are a failure, Yadav tweeted, "Due to traffic jam everywhere in Prayagraj, neither food grains, vegetables, spices are available nor medicines, petrol-diesel. Due to this, the condition of crores of hungry, thirsty, tired and exhausted devotees stuck in Prayagraj and Mahakumbh premises and on the roads leading to Prayagraj is getting worse every hour. This is a very serious situation.”
“Seeing the chaos in Mahakumbh, a capable person should be given the command of governance. Incompetent people can spread false propaganda, not true system," Yadav charged.