Clash in office, school timings triggers traffic jams across Patiala

Patiala, May 2

Commuters in the city today faced traffic woes, both during early morning and afternoon hours, as the school and office timings clashed on the first day of revised working hours in government offices.

With an aim to reduce electricity consumption at government offices, the state government had changed the official working hours of government offices to 7.30 am to 2 pm from today. The change in timings will remain in place till July 15. However, the timing of functioning of sewa kendras would remain the same as before.

The change in timings, however, remained counterproductive as the city roads remained jammed due to traffic for over an hour early in the morning.

A commuter said, “The government should have thought of the consequences of the changed timings. The changes should have been implemented keeping in mind the traffic congestion.”

Parents, who are also government employees, and had to drop off their kids to schools were caught up in traffic snarls. Harneet Singh, a parent who had to drop off his child to a private school on the Lower Mall Road, said, “I was supposed to drop my child at the school early so that I could reach the office at 7.30 am, but I got stuck in the traffic.”

With the influx of vehicles, the traffic congestion on the city roads in the afternoon hours worsened. Areas including Lower Mall Road, Fountain Chowk and Khanda Chowk remained adversely affected.

However, according to the district administration, government officials, including Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney, Senior Superintendent of Police Varun Sharma, ADC Gurpreet Singh Thind and others reached their offices on time.

The DC said the district administration will be available for the public throughout the day.