Thane: Even though Raj Thackeray's rally at Thane Moose Road got a huge response from the MNS supporters and the rally was fully crowded it didn't go well with the commuters who faced lots of problems due to traffic jams since morning which went till the end of the rally. Traffic was thrown out of gear in many areas on Tuesday causing severe inconvenience to commuters.
The MNS workers started erecting the platform for the rally on the busiest Moose Chowk from 11 am. The traffic police diverted many directions which was causing inconvenience to the public. The road from Moose Chowk to Chintamani Chowk was closed by the traffic police. There were long queues of vehicles from Courtnaka to the district government hospital and it took half to one hour to cover the distance of only five minutes.
The road leading to Moose Marg was closed, vehicles heading towards Gokhale Road, Rammaruti Road, Gadkari Rangayatan were diverted from Thane station and roads leading to the market. There was a traffic jam from Jambhalinaka to District Government Hospital.
Rajit Patil, one of the residents of Thane said, "Roads are for walking and transportation, not for political rallies. It is wrong for any political party to hold meetings on the roads. They would have better coordinated with the Thane Municipal Corporation and Thane police and arranged it on some ground. It took me 20 minutes to reach Court Naka from Thane station. Thanekars are being held hostage due to street rallies."
Ralph D'Mello, a resident of Thane said, ''Due to the rally on Moose road many residents residing in that area faced inconvenience due to police bandobast. The locals were not allowed to go to their own homes. However, they were released after mediation by activists. Many were mishandled by the police. So I will say that rallies should not be allowed on the road in the first place or if allowed then things should be managed properly."
