Traffic management went haywire with mass protests bringing the State capital to a standstill on Monday.
The simultaneous agitations undertaken by the Latin Catholic Church to the Raj Bhavan and the umbrella forum of Dalit organisations to the Secretariat choked the main roads for close to five hours.
While the City Police had issued strict guidelines meant for the agitators, they went for a toss as many of the vehicles that transported them were parked by the side of the main roads, thereby hindering the passage of other vehicles.
Official sources said that while the drivers of buses were initially instructed to park by the side of the NH-66 bypass, they were left with no other option than to permit the parking in other parts of the city later on. As a result, the roads that led to the city were also clogged.
Sources claimed that close to 60,000 agitators are estimated to have taken part in the demonstrations. Among those who turned up for the protest march to the Raj Bhavan, a large number came from various coastal villages of Tamil Nadu. There were also several buses that brought activists from the northern districts of Kerala for the agitations, the police said.
Besides, the city also witnessed littering of food packets in huge numbers at areas close to the Secretariat. While many recent demonstrations had volunteers entrusted with the task of cleaning up such waste material, this was not the case on Monday.