Mamata's appeal to keep life normal today

Expressing her government's resolve to keep life normal in West Bengal during the 24-hour nationwide general strike tomorrow, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday warned of steps, including break in service, in case of absence from duty by state employees.

Assuring of steps to keep life normal during the strike tomorrow, Banerjee said that the state government's measures had been intimated to the Calcutta High Court also. "I will appeal to the people not to respond to the strike and to attend offices as usual as steps have been taken to run trains, trams, buses," she told a TV channel.

"Trinamool Congress will not take to streets tomorrow to counter strike. My government will not allow any forcible closure of shops and offices," she said, asking pro-strike processions not to block roads. The chief minister asked government employees to attend duty as usual tomorrow, and warned of action, including a break in service as per rules in the event of absence, and asked transport operators to ply vehicles to facilitate passenger movement. Calling for an end to politics of bandh which causes enormous loss to the state exchequer, Banerjee said, "We also called bandhs when we were in the opposition in the past, but but later realised its futility. We think people have forgiven us for correcting ourselves for calling bandhs which were also rarely." She said that her government would no longer allow any bandh politics in the state which witnessed state-sponsored shutdowns in the past. Lashing out at the CPI(M) and Left parties for choosing the "politics of bandhs", Mamata said, "They have taken up the weapon of bandhs as a life-long method in the last 35 years."