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| Bandh hits life hard, Buddha harder |
| BS Reporters / Kolkata Jul 18, 2009, 00:59 IST |
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City life came to a virtual standstill as state Congress observed a 12-hour bandh in protest against attacks on Congress MLAs at Mangalkote in Burdwan district. Normal life was completely disrupted as all means of public transport facilities were blocked, railways being the severely affected.
Negligible vehicular movement was seen on the city roads. A few private bus owners operated their buses. Although the state government had decided to run its buses, the numbers were found to be insufficient.
Railway sources said train services from Howrah and Sealdah divisions were severely hit due to squatting of bandh supporters on the railway tracks at several locations.
At least eight trains including New Delhi-Howrah and New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Expresses were stranded at various stations due to squatting of bandh supporters on railway tracks.
Eight express trains including Howrah-Ranchi Shatabdi Express, had been cancelled. Train services on the South Eastern Railway were also affected. Four trains including Howrah-Barbil Janashatabdi Express have been cancelled.
Flight operations from NSC Bose International Airport were normal in the early hours of the day. Domestic flights from Kolkata to New Delhi, Mumbai, Guwahati, Silchar and Port Blair along with international flights took off early today, airport sources said.
Air passengers arrived at the airport much before the bandh began at 6 am.Some of the flights scheduled to leave in the afternoon were either cancelled or rescheduled.
The information technology (IT) sector had a mixed response today. While attendance dropped 50 per cent for some, other companies had made arrangements for their employees to work from home.
According to Shouvik Mukherji, director of Metalogic Systems, “Around 50 per cent of our employees turned up today. None of the buses that come into Sector V plied today. The employees who came made arrangements on their own for pool cars and vehicles.”
Sector V in Salt Lake is the hub of IT companies in Kolkata and has close to 170 IT companies operating, employing over 50,000 people.
According to B Hari of Ontrack, “Almost all our employees worked from home. We have got used to strikes and therefore made alternate arrangements like working from home.”Kalyan Kar of Acclaris was more optimistic. “Around 95 per cent of our employees turned up.
We made pick-up arrangements and employees who stay far away. Those who could not be provided pick-ups on time were put up in guest houses. People wanted to work and so the employee attendance did not suffer.”
Shops and educational institutions remained closed. The bandh prompted Calcutta, Jadavpur, Kalyani and Burdwan universities to postpone today's under-graduate and post-graduate examinations. The Centre for Indian Trade Unions (Citu), affiliated to the CPI-(M) had also give a 24-hour bandh call for its members in the transport sector in protest against the violent protests resorted to by the Congress supporters yesterday.
Some 5,000 policemen were deployed on the road after yesterday's rampage by Congress supporters who damaged buses. Hundreds of extra police pickets and an equal number of extra heavy radio flying squad were deployed in the city.
No incident of violence barring one of vandalising of a state bus coming from Balurghat to Kolkata by bandh supporters at Baguihati was reported.
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