Patna, Sept. 10: The VIPs of the city have earned a new name for throwing traffic out of gear in rush hours. It is “very irritating persons”.

Motorists say that morning traffic has turned chaotic because of frequent VIP movement during office and school time.

Residents say they are made to wait for at least 10 to 15 minutes every alternative day only because a minister’s cavalcade would be taking the route.

The wait at times turn endless because of mismanagement of traffic police and lack of coordination between the traffic control room and the minister’s cavalcade. This often results in delay of more than 10 minutes during peak hours. It adds up to anger, and frustration among daily commuters, who are on their way to office or school.

Though the police said that the traffic is stopped only for chief minister and governor’s cavalcade, commuters sung in a different tune.

Ravindra Tiwari, a bank employee, told The Telegraph the police stop the traffic for other VIPs and political leaders too. “Last week, a minister’s cavalcade was passing through the Income-Tax roundabout. I was sure that it was not that of the chief minister since his cavalcade consists of more cars than other ministers. The traffic was suddenly brought to a halt and several roads were blocked for at least 10 minutes. After the cavalcade went by, we had to struggle with a chaotic traffic because all were in a hurry. Such situations occur frequently,” Tiwari said.

Though the VIP movement can happen at any time, generally it is frequent between 10am and 2pm during the day and 6pm and 10pm during the night.

The maximum VIP movement takes place near Dakbungalow Chowk, Frazer Road, Boring Road roundabout, JP roundabout and Ashok Rajpath.

Contradicting the opinion of the commuters a traffic deputy superintendent of police said that the traffic is stopped only when the chief minister or the governor’s cavalcade passes through.

“We don’t stop vehicular movement for VIPs other than the chief minister and the governor. We stop the traffic for five minutes if the road through which the cavalcade will pass has heavy traffic movement. And once the cavalcade passes, we wait for a minute and then release the traffic. If there are less vehicles, we don’t stop commuters for more than two to three minutes,” he said.

However, the officer agreed that the traffic gets chaotic once it is released.

“In areas like the Income-Tax roundabout or Dakbungalow roundabout, the traffic is bound to get chaotic. Vehicular movement is very heavy in these areas. But then we have to follow the protocol,” the traffic deputy superintendent of police said.

He added that in case of other VIPs, which include other ministers, judiciary or the bureaucracy, the traffic is just diverted to some other road. “When they pass, we just clear the lane through which they will move. The traffic is never stopped,” he said.

Commuters, however, said that Patna being the capital of the state, traffic movement was a serious problem they were facing everyday because of VIPs’ cavalcade.

“I got stuck many several times at the Dakbungalow Chowk due to VIP movement. Once I was stuck for an hour because a minister was given priority than ordinary citizen. As soon as the cavalcade passes through, the traffic police get confused. This causes a major blockade,” said Rajneesh Mishra, an employee with the state government.

“It is really troublesome. The police gypsies on top speed try to clear the road all of a sudden scaring the motorists. Once a gypsy almost toppled me off my two-wheeler. The VIPs need safe and clear roads to commute. After all, they are public servants but daily commuters should not be disturbed,” said S.D. Sharma, who works with a private bank.

The deputy superintendent of traffic police said that they were doing the best to control the traffic movement.

“We are doing everything we can. Once a cavalcade passes we do our best to clear off the roads and manage the traffic but commuters too should have some patience. They all want to zip through as soon as the cavalcade passes,” the officer said.