September 07, 2007

Left rally chokes city streets

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Coordination Committee rally on Thursday choked most of the roads in central Kolkata.

Traffic was thrown out of gear on S N Banerjee Road, Lenin Sarani, Chittaranjan Avenue, J L Nehru Road and Old Court House Street for hours in the afternoon. Employees at the state secretariat left office early to join the rally. They made a beeline for the venue, walking all the way because the roads were chock-a-block with cars and buses, thanks to the mid-afternoon rally.

The rally was to begin at 2 pm, but the city came to a halt hours before that as the rallyists headed for Rani Rashmoni Avenue.

Between 1 pm and 3 pm, employees at Writers’ Buildings were busy disposing of the files in a hurry and rushing to the rally venue. Some of them used this as an excuse to head for home. A finance department official said: "I have no intention to attend the rally. If everyone is enjoying a holiday, why should I stay back and slog in office? I, however, don’t want the union leaders know that I am leaving for home."

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