Odisha traders lose Rs 1,000 cr due to 12-hour hartal

Coal mine operations paralyzed, city bus services suspended

Traders in the state lost business worth Rs 1,000 crore due to the 12-hour hartal called by the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), opposing the Centre’s alleged step motherly attitude towards Odisha.

Normal life was also hit as passenger train services were disrupted and city bus services suspended.

"Most of the shops remained closed throughout the state. The traders have lost business to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore,” said Subratto Patnaik, president, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), Odisha chapter.

The traders suo moto pulled down their shutters due to the hartal, he added.

The regional party was protesting the meagre allocation for Odisha under Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) and demanding grant of special category status for the state.

"BJD has called a peaceful hartal throughout the state because of repeated negligence of the Central government”, said chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

Train services were disrupted for sometime as BJD activists staged demonstrations and blocked rail tracks in various places including Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Cuttack and Balasore.

The roads wore a deserted look as buses and trucks remained off the roads. City bus services in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack remained suspended, adding much to the plight of commuters.

The dawn-to-dusk hartal had a debilitating impact on coal mines in the state whose operations were almost paralyzed. The BJD workers enforced total bandh in the Talcher coalfields under Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), halting coal production and despatch.

“We have suffered a production loss of 0.1 million tonne of coal today as all the coal mines of the company were stopped today. There was also no despatch of coal to any power station from any of the coalfields”, said director (technical) of MCL A K Singh.