Maoists blow up railway tracks in Jharkhand, call for shutdown

Maoists on Thursday called for a 24-hour shutdown in Ranchi against the government's land acquisition bill and blew up some railways tracks in Gomoh, Bokaro and Dhanbad regions of Jharkhand state.

The shutdown had an impact as no public transport was available for daily commuters.

"Shutdown has caused inconvenience. People are stranded here. There is no mode of transportation for passengers," said a local resident Gulfam.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) passed an urgent executive order in December 2014 to ease land-acquisition rules in sectors like power, housing and defence to kick-start hundreds of billions of dollars in stalled projects, though investments are unlikely to flow in immediately.

Restrictions on buying land, under a law championed by the last Congress government, are among barriers holding up projects worth almost 300 billion dollars. Several states had asked PM Modi to overhaul the law enacted in January.