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Photo focus: Stop this menace… clear the roads
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Story and pix by Anuradha Bandara
The recent spate of street protests which occurs almost on a daily basis is causing grave inconvenience to the public.
These protests in the city’s capital bring daily life to a complete standstill. Traffic is brought to a complete standstill and protesters seem increasingly intent to conduct their protests with the sole intention of causing maximum public inconvenience.
Last week Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was unable to make his way to Parliament as a protest demonstration had blocked parliament road and the premier had to be airlifted to parliament.
Ordinary folk are not so lucky.
Even those in urgent medical attention have to face this situation, sometimes with tragic results. Last week the Sunday Times was witness to a situation where a 72-year-old heart patient in need of urgent medical attention was caught up in traffic caused by one such demonstration.
Despite valiant efforts of police officers who removed barricades to help the vehicle proceed, it got held up almost immediately due to traffic snarled up further down the road.
Workers returning home too are greatly inconvenienced, having to make their way around barricades etc.
To make matters worse, protesters have begun intimidating motorists, forcing them to park their vehicles alongside roads to make way for the demonstrators.
The inconvenience caused by these unauthorised demonstrations have now become part of our daily lives.
Unruly demonstrators have begun intimidating motorists and forcing them off the road
Traffic on both sides of the Colombo-Kotte road brought to a standstill due to one or the other unauthorised demonstration
Police removed barricades to help this vehicle carrying a heart patient to hospital... unfortunately the vehicle was blocked a little further down the road because of a demonstration
Making your way home is more akin to participating in an obstacle race... workers making their way around barricades
Premier Wickremesinghe had to be airlifted to parliament as a protest demonstration resulted in a traffic snarl-up on the road to parliament