As it is, traffic in the late afternoons of a Ramadan day is heavy without being compounded by street programmes of political parties. Only those unfortunate ones on the roads in the scorching heat on Sunday can accurately describe the unmitigated sufferings caused to the homebound commuters that day because of the human chain programme of the ruling 14-party Alliance.

It was suddenly that the Alliance decided to go for an anti-militancy motivational programme by organising human chain at 15 points covering all the important intersections in the city. But why at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and that too in the month of Ramadan when most people make for their homes from work? And when the rally was supposed to last for an hour, the ripple effect of it lasted well past the time of Iftar which many of the unfortunate commuters missed.

The idea of motivating the public against militancy is well and good, but why does it have to be organised on the streets blocking movement of vehicles, and if at all, could such programmes not be held in the morning instead of choosing a peak traffic hour?

While we appreciate the purpose of sensitising people on national issues we are completely aghast by the way the idea was implemented. It was ill-advised on the part of the organisers to choose the time and the mode that they did. We believe that instead of drawing the attention of the public to an important issue the programme has drawn public ire at best.