Chief minister Raghubar Das inspects the guard of honour at Bokaro aerodrome before inaugurating the new Chas bridge on Wednesday. (Below) Schoolchildren walk home under the scorching sun as traffic on NH-23 was blocked for nearly six hours. Pictures by Pankaj Singh
Bokaro, April 6: Six-year-old Aditya of Chas will not forget this day when chief minister Raghubar Das inaugurated the Bokaro-Chas bridge on the NH-23. The schoolboy had to walk a good part of 4km as vehicles were barred on the highway for VIP security.
Aditya was among the thousands of schoolchildren from Chas and Bokaro who bore the brunt of the chief minister's visit to inaugurate the second connector today as an overzealous district administration cordoned off the 4km stretch connecting the twin townships as no-traffic zone for almost six hours.
As the district administration clamped traffic from 9.30am to 3pm on the NH-23 that links the two towns, some 40,000 students from Chas, who had gone to their schools located in Bokaro early in the morning, had to walk back home under the blistering midday sun for kilometres when classes got over for the day.
Fewer in number, Bokaro children who study in Chas cradles such as Crescent Public School and GGPS (Guru Gobind Singh Public School) faced the same problem.
Traffic was barred on the highway from Bokaro aerodrome to Mahavir Mandir in Chas township, which included the old Chas bridge, which people use to travel between the two townships. Its dilapidated condition and a swelling population had prompted the construction of a new bridge, which the chief minister inaugurated today.
However, Bokaro district administration's planning came for a lot of flak.
Schools closed barely 45 minutes before the chief minister's programme started at 12.15pm, making most parents lash out at the administration. "Why did the district administration not ask institutions to declare a holiday if it was necessary for the highway to be blocked for hours?" said a parent near the Bokaro aerodrome, sweating profusely.
Aditya's mother Anita Pandey, a resident of Yeduvansh Nagar at Chas, was almost tearful. "My son will have to walk in 40°C temperature. I can carry him in my lap as far as possible. But, what is this? I can understand security reasons but I have never seen traffic forcibly stopped by the administration for six hours. Is the CM above law? Or does the administration not have any common sense?" the mother said.
Her cries found echo among politicians from rival political camps, BJP's Giridih MP Ravindra Pandey and JMM's Dumri MLA Jagannath Mahto.
"This is extremely immature on the part of district administration. I feel so sad to see children walking for kilometres in this state and parents carrying schoolbags," said Pandey.
Dumri MLA Mahto also did not mince words. "Look at the magnitude of the problem being faced by thousands of citizens, including schoolchildren," he said.
Schoolchildren apart, patients from nearby Purulia in Bengal, bound for Bokaro General Hospital, and commuters from Ranchi and Ramgarh on their way to Dhanbad, were also stranded due to the traffic clampdown on NH-23.
Contacted, Bokaro DC R.M. Ray said there was some communication gap due to which schoolbuses were stopped. "Once I came to know schoolbuses were stopped, I got some released but by that time the inconvenience had been caused. We will see this is not repeated in future," he said.
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