Traffic hit as AIADMK cadre descend on city

Nearly 1.5 lakh people paid homage at Jayalalithaa’s memorial and the crowd started receding only after 4 pm, said a police official. The vehicle movement on all roads leading to Marina including Kamarajar Salai, Anna Salai and Poonamallee High Road were affected as early as 7 am and many office-goers were delayed between one to two hours to work. 

Rifadh Mohammed, who usually takes the Kamarajar Salai from Adyar to reach his office in Egmore was stuck for nearly two hours on the road. 

The vehicles of visitors from other parts of the state were parked on the feeder roads leading to Kamarajar Salai, resulting in chaos in areas like Triplicane and even in North Chennai. 

Police sources, who were on the spot controlling the crowd said that the silent march led by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam was attended by close to 1,000 party men including the MLAs and MPs. Apart from AIADMK men and women, other party leaders such as Karunas and sidelined AIADMK leader TTV Dinakaran also paid homage at Jaya’s memorial. 

Nearly 1,000 police personnel started making traffic arrangements on Kamarajar Salai from Monday. Anna Square inspector Sabapathy said that the anniversary went off in a smooth manner without any untoward incident.