Supporters of a BJD candidate in a procession near the sub-collector’s office . Pictures by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, March 24: The aam aadmi had to face a lot of hardship because of heavy traffic congestion on the roads in front of the offices of the sub-collector and additional district magistrate as the netas rushed to file their nomination today.

The police erected barricades in front of the additional district magistrate’s office near the Heads of the Departments Building (popularly known as Na’tala Building) blocking the road that connects Power House Square to Secretariat. Four candidates from Bhubaneswar North and Bhubaneswar Central Assembly constituencies filed their nomination papers at this office today.

Erection of two bamboo barricades and another removable plastic barricade near the additional district magistrate’s office have almost blocked the entry into the nearby offices located there.

“We are facing a lot of problems in going to our office during the time of nomination filing as the road is occupied by political leaders and their supporters. The police should remove these barricades after the nomination hour,” said Ragunath Senapati, a government employee.

Similarly, in front of the sub-collector’s office at Kalpana Square, commuters had to face a lot of problems to drive through the National Highway 203 because of heavy traffic congestion. Supporters of the election candidates kept their vehicles on the roadside, leaving little passage for daily commuters to move through. Though the police could not block the highway like they did in front of the additional district magistrate’s office, they had deployed their personnel to smoothen the traffic flow. However, it was not enough to control the vehicular movement during the candidate’s procession.

Contestants from Bhubaneswar’s Jayadev Vihar, Ekamra and Jatni Assembly constituencies are supposed to file their nomination papers before the sub-collector. The last date for filing of nomination paper in Bhubaneswar is March 26.