Strike halts Bengal
Empty streets and absence of violence marked the 12-hour strike called by the Opposition parties, including the Left Front, in Kolkata.
The city's IT sector took a hit with attendance plummeting and Railway operations in the region were also affected.
Major IT firms in the technology district of Sector V retained essential operations through Tuesday with employee strength between 40-50 per cent, while BPO companies registered between 70-80 per cent attendance.
“Some companies will remain open next Sunday to compensate for today. Since the IT sector wasn't kept out of the purview of this bandh, there has been an impact,” Sector V Industries Forum vice-president Kalyan Kar said.
All of the four divisions under Eastern Railways, including Sealdah, Howrah, Asansol and Malda, had been subject to 77 obstructions since early on Tuesday. In a release, the Railways further added that 14 trains had been cancelled and 31 trains had been stranded en route, including two Rajdhani trains.
Although there were no major instances of violence in the city, some passengers were reportedly involved in a scuffle with bandh supporters at Pundooah in the northern part of the state.
However, Subrata Mukherjee, working president of West Bengal Congress and an union leader, said, "We are trying to actively oppose the strike. At many places, our supporters were beated up. Muscle-flexing by the ruling party to enforce the bandh is not right."
Almost all branches of State Bank of India in the state were closed today, though branches in Sikkim and Andaman & Nicobar Island functioned normally, a spokesperson said.
However, work at the the global business unit of the bank in the city, which deals with treasury and currency operations, was normal.
The interviews of SBI clerk recruitment, which was scheduled to be held today has also been postponed.
All the ATMs, however, were open. Branches of most public sector banks, including the ones headquartered in Kolkata—UCO, United Bank of India and Allahabad Bank—were also shut. The head offices of most banks were open, though, attendance was thin.
The lock-down could lead to a production loss of close to Rs 500 crore, the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) estimated. "The total loss due to a 12-hour bandh in West Bengal is approximately Rs 496 crore of the Gross State Domestic Product," ICC senior vice-president P Jayanta Roy said.
CII Eastern Region chairman Kurush Grant added: “Bandhs are avoidable, specially when there is a strong effort to attract investments into the region. They lead to significant losses, not only for organised industry, but also for thousands of micro entrepreneur.”
Political analyst Sabyasachi Basu Ray Chowdhury, however, posited that the popular consensus backing such strikes was slowly abating. "The idea of striking was successful in the 50's and 60's. But it is blunted now with over use and abuse. The Left Front has called 27 bandhs in the past 33 years. The supporters can resort to picketing but the response of people should be spontaneous,” he said.
Unsurprisingly, though, it was the common citizen who faced the worst of it. Even as Nayan Baniya lays sprawled across the waiting area at Howrah station awaiting his delayed train to arrive, Snehasis Choudhuri remarked: “For the people in the government sector, it is another off-day. But for businesses and others, it is a day of inconvenience. This culture has to be stopped.”