DEHRADUN: Frenzied activity was seen across the city on the last day of campaigning for civic body polls on Friday, with massive motorcycle and car rallies being taken out by supporters of candidates. Throwing caution to the winds, many of those who participated in such rallies were seen speeding or riding without helmets.Police as well seemed to have turned a blind eye to the traffic violations, which left residents harrowed. “I saw so many bikes zoom past at Rajpur Road and riders not wearing helmets. Many were also honking endlessly,” said a resident.Police officers, when queried, said that notices for traffic violations by workers of political parties have been sent to the district returning officer seeking action against the organisers.Lokeshwar Singh, superintendent of police (traffic), told TOI, “Permission is given to political parties to hold rallies on the condition that they will not break the law. But in case they flout norms, we write to the district returning officer to take action against the organisers.”Residents said that it is common for any sort of rally to break traffic rules and police need to take stringent action to avoid such occurrences in future.“Flouting rules is a common sight at many of these bike rallies, irrespective of the political party organising it. Candidates contesting civic elections should lead by example, but they are the ones flouting the rules along with their supporters,” said Anurag Singh, a resident.Police meanwhile said that “it is not possible to challan motorists in heavily crowded rallies.”“Some rallies have thousands of supporters on bikes and scooters and it’s not easy to keep a tab on everyone with the limited manpower that we have,” said SP Traffic.

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