Patna: A meal served to dozens of villagers in Bihar after a funeral ceremony led to a traffic nightmare on Monday as guests sat in the middle of the National Highway.
Hundreds of drivers negotiating National Highway-57 were at their wits’ end when they encountered villagers sitting in the middle of the road in Phulparas, Madhubani district, eating.
They could not move forward; the villagers had put up barriers.
Two hours or so
For more than two hours the villagers - including children - ate while sitting on the road, unconcerned by the traffic on either side.
It was only after each villager had had their fill that the vehicle-flow finally resumed, officials said.
The local authorities took serious note of the incident and vowed to take action against the villagers.
“Blocking a National Highway to throw a feast is a serious crime. We can’t allow the villagers to do it and have asked the patrolling party to take action against them,” general manager of NH-57, Darbhanga, Manish Mishra told the media on Tuesday.
The local district administration also announced action against the culprits.
“Feasting on the middle of the road is a serious offence but no one has complained to us so far. We will indeed take action if we get any complaint,” local district superintendent of police Deepak Baranwal said.
Where else to go?
Witnesses said such scenes are quite common in the Madhubani district of Bihar but villagers say they are forced to use the roads to serve meals for any function in the community owing to a shortage of space in the village. According to them, hundreds of villagers can eat food at the same time on the road, while at home it takes several hours to complete the task.