Left shutdown against note ban paralyses Tripura

Life was crippled in Tripura on Monday due to a Left-called 12-hour shutdown to protest against demonetisation of high value currency.

The dawn-to-dusk strike was called by the ruling Left Front led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist.

Police said more than 1,500 activists of political parties were arrested for picketing in front of government offices and railway stations.

Government and semi-government as well as private offices, banks, educational institutions, shops and business establishments were closed due to the strike.

All vehicles, except those of security forces, went off the roads.

The protest did not affect flights in and out of Agartala.

Train services between Tripura and the rest of the country were affected as Left workers blocked several trains in different locations.

"The shutdown is peaceful," police spokesman Uttam Kumar Bhowmik told IANS.

Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress and Congress, opposed the shutdown and instead decided to stage protest rallies on the same issue.

BJP workers held several rallies in different parts of Tripura opposing the strike.

"The strike was total, successful and spontaneous," Tripura Left Front convenor and former Lok Sabha member Khagen Das said.

Das, a former Health and Revenue Minister, said the people, especially the poor as well as small and medium traders, were the worst victim of the Modi government's demonetisation decision.

--IANS

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