VHP Rally Disrupts Traffic in Patna
Patna: Sept. 12, 2007
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Woman Delivers Baby During Traffic Jam
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Photo by Shashi Uttam |
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Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Shiv Sena activists in Patna on Wednesday blocked the roads and disrupted train traffic in the state to protest against the UPA government's plan to develop a navigational sea route between India and Sri Lanka which, they say, could destroy the ancient Sri Ram Setu.
Traffic throughout the state capital and its satellite towns were so bad that a woman in the full term of her pregnancy had to deliver her baby by the side of the road in Khagaul area.
As reported, Sunita Devi of Khagaul, in the unavailability of a taxi due to road blocks caused by the protestors, was being transported to a clinic by her husband on a rickshaw when she experienced that excruciating pain familiar to women at that stage of their pregnancies.
With no chance of reaching the clinic, her husband Jitendra Chowdhary pulled over by the side of the road where, with the help of a handful of good Samaritans, she delivered a healthy baby boy.
Meanwhile, traffic in Patna came to a virtual standstill for nearly three hours as thousands of VHP And Shiv Sena activists marched through the city demanding dumping of the plan to build the navigational sea route between the southern coast of India to Sri Lanka.
In Kankarbagh, Chiraiyantand Bridge, Dak Bungalow Crossing, Ashiana Mor, Boring Road crossing, Ashok Rajpath, Station Road, and Nala Road, situation was particularly grave as hundreds of thousands of ordinary men, women, and children remained stuck in the traffic using their cell phones to stay in touch with their family members.
At Patna Junction, things were not any better either. Protestors shouting anti-UPA slogans sat on the track disrupting normal flow of traffic leaving passengers fuming with frustration.
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