Residents of villages along the Agara main road in Bengaluru resorted to blocking roads to their village, thus creating a menace to genuine motorists.
Rahul Padman
Bengaluru, April 17, 2020
Some villagers at the Agara main road blocked the road that connects NH 275 to Kanakpura Road. The roads were barricaded in the night with bricks, stones and tree trunks. This stopped the movement of essential commodities to the villages along the way. Areas around Ganganagar and KHM Block were also blocked by the residents.
Raj, a native of Gangasandra said, “There was a fleet of trucks blockading the road early in the morning. The police arrived immediately to reinstate the movement of vehicles.”
The natives had clashed with the police a week ago for blocking the roads during the daytime. An unidentified man in the village said, ‘We are worried about the spread of coronavirus. Many youngsters do not stay indoors; they wander in the village on their bikes. So, we block the roads for our safety.
The police are now patrolling these roads 24 hours a day. The main roads are patrolled every two hours during the daytime, and 3 to 4 times during the night. A police constable, Sudarshan N said, “We have had clashes with the people of many villages in the region for blocking the roads and gathering in the evening hours, where we had to chase them away. We are trying to educate the people.”N Srinivas, an urban planner said that people are driven by an unfounded fear from reports of incidents all around the world and by the gradually increasing rate of infections recently noticed in India. “People need to be educated through popular channels like television, to build awareness among the people. Through this, the public will not be misinformed and cause unnecessary chaos. Also, such blockades can prove fatal in a medical emergency for those who want to drive through these roads,” he added.
