Jat stir: Chandigarh-Shimla highway traffic restored

Chandigarh: Traffic on the Chandigarh-Shimla national highway was restored on Sunday, police said.

The traffic on both sides of the highway was stuck at Panchkula in Haryana for more than six hours because the road was obstructed by Jat agitators who are demanding quota in government jobs, a police official told IANS.

The traffic movement was restored after state roadways buses bound for Himachal Pradesh from Chandigarh were routed through Baddi town, avoiding Panchkula, and protestors were removed from the road, he added.

"As a precaution, we have routed all the buses bound for Solan, Shimla and Kinnaur districts through Baddi, thus avoiding Panchkula town," an official of the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport told IANS here.

This was for the first time that the agitators blocked the Chandigarh-Shimla highway, the major link to Shimla, Solan and Kinnaur districts of Himachal Pradesh.