Parents, students fret as millworkers protest

While all roads led to Azad Maidan for the mill workers protest, anxious parents in that area rushed to schools to pick up their children.

Marine Lines resident, Ramona Shah, said, "When I learnt about the Shiv Sena protest, I decided to go and fetch my nine-year-old son from Bharda New High School, who usually takes the school bus home."


Parents rushed to pick up their children from schools around
Azad Maidan, due to the jams caused by the morcha yesterday

Pooling of cars was another option for parents who offered to drop children from their neighbourhood, home. Among them was Rehman Abdullah, " Since I had my car, I decided to drop kids who live near my area.
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In such political activities, there is no guarantee what will happen. I don't want to take a risk with the kids," he said Traffic jams and congestion on the streets had made it difficult for students to commute.
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Marine Drive residents, Valerie Paes and Rica Harare of Std X from Alexandra High School, Fort, said, "We had to literally push through the crowd of people who were here to protest.
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What usually took us about 10 minutes to reach, took us half an hour today. It was really troublesome."

Most students, who lived close by, decided to go home on foot.

Sunder Dhawan, a student of St Xavier's School, said, "There was so much traffic on the roads that I preferred to walk to my house near Crawford market. The traffic was chock-a-block," he said.