No sooner did the monsoon arrive in Kolkata, though very late, than its side effects began to manifest. The city clearly was in a chaotic state as there was lack of coherence in the traffic due to the non fucntional traffic lights in many places of the central city.

The whole central city began to look like a mess with cars lined up bumper to bumper on Wednesday as the traffic signals failed with the much awaited monsoon's arrival in the city. Many children and office goers were delayed significantly by the problem with the signals.

Traffic was jammed even on roads where buses aren't allowed like Park Street, Camac Street, and Theatre Road too. The areas which were the busiest were attended to by a few additional traffic police who eased the problem to certain extent while the other roads were neglected. Teachers from several schools like La Martiniere for Boys and Girls, Birla High School for Boys and Girls and St Xavier's Collegiate School, volunteered to man the traffic aand prevent any accidents in the caotic snarls. Timings of the schools were relaxed by a few minutes as majority of the students were late to schools.

With the monsoon's arrival in the city, parents expressed their fears of the existant water logging problem. Non functioning of the traffic signals would only worsen the situation and the government should take necessary steps to ensure that there is no disruption of the traffic in the peak timings. A teacher from La Martiniere rued that they had to relax the strict disciplinary rules of punctuality due to the trauamatic experiences faced by the kids expecially the four and five year olds due to the traffic and rains.

AW- Anil