Citizenship Act protest: Delhi traffic police advisory
In a fresh advisory over traffic diversions in the national capital, the Delhi Traffic Police on Wednesday advised commuters from Noida to take the DND or Akshardham route to reach Delhi. The traffic advisory comes in the wake of massive protests over the amended Citizenship Act. Parts of the national capital, specifically South Delhi has been witnessing protests and stone-pelting by agitators, mostly students. Delhi Police had launched a crackdown at the Jamia campus following which the students took to streets and demonstrated against the cops.
Route diversions have become a routine as barricades and barriers have been placed across Delhi to avoid any ignition to the already continuing protests.
Taking to Twitter, the Delhi Traffic Police early Wednesday said, "Road No. 13A between Mathura Road and Kalindi Kunj is closed for traffic movement. People coming from Noida are advised to take DND or Akshardham to reach Delhi."
"Similarly people going to Noida from Mathura road are advised to take ashram chowk, DND or Noida link road. Okhla underpass going towards Kalindi Kunj is also closed for traffic movement," the Delhi Traffic Police said.
Entry and exist gates of two metro stations - Jafrabad and Maujpur - on Tuesday remained closed for over seven hours due to violence in northeast Delhi's Seelampur area following protests against the amended Citizenship Act.
The gates of these stations were closed around 3 pm, according to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).
Besides these two stations, the DMRC also tweeted that "all entry and exit gates of Welcome, Gokulpuri, Johri Enclave and Shiv Vihar were opened."
The entry and exit gates of Seelampur were also open, it said. Gates of the five stations were closed around 5:45 pm.
In fresh violence in the national capital, protesters demanding scrapping of the amended citizenship law torched several motor bikes, pelted stones at police personnel and damaged buses and a police booth in Northeast Delhi's Seelampur area on Tuesday afternoon.
Police resorted to baton charge and fired tear gas shells to disperse the protesters.
Plumes of smoke billowed from at least two localities as the standoff continued for around one-and-a-half hours. Police said the situation has been brought under control.
They said two bikes of traffic cops were burnt by the demonstrators, adding a police booth in the area was vandalised and CCTV cameras installed there were taken away by the mob.
Some security personnel were also injured in the incident, police said.
Additional Police Commissioner (Traffic), south Delhi, A.K. Singh also said: "About 7 to 8 thousand people gathered at the protest site at Shaheen Bagh on Wednesday morning. The protest is going on here for the last 2-3 days. As a precautionary measure, Delhi Traffic Police issued advisory for the general public to avoid the roads around the area."
"We have stopped the traffic coming from Noida and going towards Kalindi Kunj. This is an exercise to prevent chaos in areas like Delhi's Sarita Vihar, Mathura Road and Shaheen Bagh," said Singh.
