Chaotic parking of DMDK vehicles adds to mess

CHENNAI: Traffic in Guindy, Saidapet and Adyar here was badly affected on Monday due to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the city and actor-politician Vijayakanth’s bid to greet him with black flags.The high-voltage demonstration by the DMDK against the Prime Minister, resulted in badly managed traffic chaos. Sources said the party workers, who were stopped by the police at different places, parked their vehicles haphazardly on the roads and started walking towards Panagal Maligai in Saidapet, where their procession was set to begin.Led by their leader Vijayakanth, hundreds of them marched towards Raj Bhavan holding black flags and shouting slogans, bringing all traffic from Kathipara Junction towards Anna Salai and vice-versa to a grinding halt. As the actor-politician and around 500 DMDK workers were arrested, MTC buses and other vehicles were forced to stop at Saidapet for an hour.A youth from Parrys, who was proceeding to Santhome to attend a job interview, said he got off an MTC bus and walked 3 km till Kannagi Statue. “I am not sure whether I can walk the rest of the way and be on time for the interview,” he said.Buses proceeding from T Nagar to Anna Salai were also diverted. R Ramya, a resident of Royapettah, said it took nearly two hours for her to reach her workplace at Nandambakkam compared to the usual 40 minutes.While police officers claimed that they were merely adhering to security norms, the traffic snarl also raised questions on why a chopper was not used to ferry the Prime Minister to and from the venue.