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| In the green corner was Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamul battalion. |
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Team Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti (GMC) for once managed to thwart the traffic-stopping game plan of the Trinamul Congress and Citu in Metro Channel, much to the relief of Monday commuters bracing for chaos at the crossroad. Metro was there for the noon and matinee shows opposite Metro cinema to see how the police managed to win the Monday match.
11am to noon: At the podium erected for the Citu meeting (closer to the KC Das end) decorators are giving the final touches. With no Citu leader in sight, a few supporters of the ruling party’s labour wing are lounging around.
Less than 50 feet away (close to Dorina crossing), the podium for the Trinamul has come up. Leader Tapas Roy sits on the makeshift stage along with a few others.
The busiest men at work? Constables setting up enclosures to cordon off the two protest platforms with iron fences; senior officers chalking out pre-match strategy.
“Aajke kopale dukkho achhe (It is going to be a bad day),” a senior constable from Hare Street police station is overheard telling a rookie.
Deputy commissioner (south) Rajesh Subarno is in a huddle with some officers.
One fourth of the flank towards CR Avenue is already closed for traffic, but flow is smooth.
Noon: Deputy commissioner (central) Damayanti Sen arrives at Metro Channel and goes into a huddle with senior officers of her division. Within minutes, cops are everywhere, easily outnumbering protesters from the red and green corners.
Sergeants keep the traffic moving in the Metro Channel.
1pm: Rallyists armed with red flags and loud slogans start trickling into Metro Channel. As if on cue, Trinamul supporters start raising slogans.
Citu’s slogans are about closed industrial units being revived and their workers taken care of. The Trinamul is busy blasting government apathy towards the SC, ST and OBC sections and its handling of the Rizwanur Rahman and Tapasi Mullick cases.
Cops — often guilty of turning a blind eye to protests crippling afternoon traffic at Esplanade — swing into action.
A group of more than 50 constables, assistant sub-inspectors and inspectors, along with members of the Calcutta Armed Police, cordon off the Trinamul enclosure. Another police team fans out to ensure that the Citu rallyists don’t spill out of their designated zone and choke traffic.
“The idea is to keep the vehicles moving even if the speed is slow,” says a sergeant from the Headquarters Traffic Guard. Now, half of the flank towards CR Avenue is cordoned off but traffic still moves.
2pm: The Citu and Trinamul camps are cordoned off but the emergence of a human chain from SN Banerjee Road — Medical Service Centre members demanding better facilities in district hospitals — upsets calculations and stalls traffic for a while. But only for a while; cops are quick to unclog the thoroughfare.
3pm: The Citu meeting ends and cops escort the rallyists out of the area. Three-fourth of the flank is thrown open to traffic. “The worst is over. We were fearing clashes between the rivals groups. From now on, it’s only traffic management,” smiled a policeman.
4pm: The crowd count rises for the Trinamul meeting. But even Mamata Banerjee’s arrival cannot bring traffic to a halt. One half of the flank was cordoned off, causing a slowdown but no snarl.
WHAT TEAM GMC DID RIGHT ON MONDAY: There was a high-level meeting in Lalbazar on Sunday evening. A two-fold strategy was drawn up: stop confrontation between rival groups, and keep traffic flowing at all costs.
From the morning three deputy commissioners, along with 10 assistant commissioners, were present at the spot. There were 300 junior officers on the job.
No major traffic diversion or disruption was reported.
WHAT TEAM GMC DOES WRONG ON OTHER DAYS: Cops treat Metro Channel as spectator sport — a handful in uniform hang around doing precious little to keep protesters in check and the traffic flow smooth and steady. This police inaction allows even 10 protesters and 50 empty chairs to hold the city centre to ransom.
