Residents of New Delhi are growing increasingly angry at being late for work and missing appointments because roads are blocked for motorcades of government officials.

The traffic jams have worsened recently because security was beefed up in res- ponse to intelligence reports that officials are under threat of terrorist attack.

An area of the city was forced to evacuate homes and offices on a Saturday last month because the prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was planting a tree in a park and his guards were worried about snipers in the surrounding buildings.

But the last straw was on March 10 when dozens of students missed final exams because of a security blockade for the deputy prime minister, Lal K Advani, who was heading to the city's outskirts to address a meeting.

Missing exams can cause a student to wait another year before entering college or university, and parents were so outraged that Mr Advani's office was forced to apologise.

In an unusual concession, the education department has agreed to allow students to retake the exams, according to the Times of India.
AP, New Delhi