VVIP Protocol---- at what cost?

Nobody grudges VVIP protocol. And, if it happens to be for the Vice President of India, who would ?

But in a city, where people have no roads, and the protocol for VVIPs are sparing and thin, the way the traffic was blocked and barricades set up by digging into newly- laid surfaces, raises the question: Was it really needed?

The newly-surfaced roads were dug up to put barricades for ensuring an unhindered and smooth movement of Vice- President Mohammad Hamid Ansari who spent just four hours in Patna on Saturday.

Hamid Ansari, the dignified, erudite and scholarly Vice- President came, saw and left. The problem: In the aftermath, he left a city gasping for breath. The torture was too much, as his stretch involved a visit to the truly famous, Khuda Baksh Library, deep in such territory, which houses a major hospital, hundreds of clinics and happens to house the major shopping district of the city. The cavalcade, upset it all.

Incidentally, the Raj Bahwan to Gandhi Maidan stretch is one of the best-laid roads that the state capital could showcase and it was left to rue its ‘ruins’ on Saturday.

“The barricades were put to prevent traffic movement from lanes and by-lanes,” defended a district administration official.