Patna, July 27: Angry RJD workers staged anti-Nitish Kumar protests and paralysed traffic at many places in the state, including the Gandhi Setu and the newly inaugurated JP Setu, from the morning.
When Saran district magistrate (DM) Harihar Prasad and superintendent of police (SP) Anusuya Ransingh Sahu reached the bridge over the Ganga to clear the road blockade and restore traffic from the Sonepur end, the protesters pelted stones at them.
The DM and the SP had to beat a hasty retreat.
A large contingent of security forces was immediately rushed to the spot and the cops had to lathicharge protesters.
Commuters bore the brunt of the RJD workers' agitation.
"I am stuck in the traffic jam for over three hours," said a visibly upset Ritesh Kumar, 34, a resident of Dighwara in Saran, near the JP Setu. "I have to go see my ailing mother, but nobody is budging."
RJD chief Lalu Prasad represented the Saran Lok Sabha seat prior to his conviction in the fodder scam case.
Siwan resident Gangadhar Mahto, 65, said RJD workers attacked his car when his driver tried to cross the JP Setu. He was returning to Siwan from Patna after seeking medical advice. "I am a diabetic patient, but my repeated pleas to let my vehicle go fell on deaf ears," Mahto said.
At the Gandhi Setu, the snarls were bigger. Women and children were crossing the 5.5km bridge on foot.
Traffic on the bridge came to a standstill around 3am as hundreds of supporters of deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav from his constituency Raghopur blocked the road near Ganga Bridge police station. A long queue of buses, cars and other vehicles piled up on the bridge.
"There was no preparation for dealing with traffic in the wake of the fall of the Grand Alliance government on Wednesday evening," fumed Sadhna Devi, 35, a resident of Samastipur. "The district administration should have made preparations to ensure smooth traffic on the Gandhi Setu, which is a lifeline for the people of north Bihar."
Sadhna was lugging suitcases along with her two young children. "The bus got stuck in the jam on the Gandhi Setu around 5.30am," she said. "I kept waiting in the bus till 10.25am, but then I lost my patience and decided to cross the bridge on foot."
She was on way to her home in Vaishali district. She finally called up her brother, who came on a motorbike and took her and her children.
An elderly couple from Sitamarhi trudged across the bridge to catch an auto-rickshaw for Hajipur station.
"I will board a train for Muzaffarpur from where I will leave for Sitamarhi either by bus or train," said Yogendra Kumar Sah, 70, a resident of Dhen in Sitamarhi district.
Yogendra's wife Sita Devi, 65, confronted the security personnel at the Hajipur end of the bridge over the Ganga. "You people are watching the protest as mute spectators. There is no need to remain here if you can't do anything to clear the jam," Sita, a retired professor, told the cops.
RJD supporters also blocked the Chhapra-Hajipur road near Govindpur Chowk, burnt tyres and shouted anti-Nitish slogans. Reports of protests also poured in from Samastipur, Kaimur and Munger districts where hundreds of RJD workers hit the streets in protest against what they called chief minister Nitish Kumar's subterfuge.
The police headquarters has issued specific directives to SPs of sensitive districts to deal sternly with protesters who break the law.
Zonal inspector-generals and range deputy inspector-generals have been asked to keep strict surveillance on the people trying to vitiate the situation.
"The headquarters is also alert and taking all precautionary measures to prevent any untoward incident," additional director-general of police (headquarters) S.K. Singhal, who is also the official spokesperson of the state police, told The Telegraph.
