AITUC to hold two-day stir from Feb 20

Transportation services and sales of essential commodities are likely to be affected as the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), representing the traders' community, has given a call for a two-day nationwide strike next month, CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta said today.

Flaying the Congress for its "anti-people" policies, he said, "Transportation, oil, power, banking, insurance, telecom, post office and income tax services will be hit during the two-day strike scheduled for February 20 and 21."

"We want the economic activity of the country to come to a halt during those two days," he said, appealing to traders associations to participate in the strike.

The AITUC, CPI's trade union wing, is protesting price rise and demanding that job opportunities for unemployed youth besides welfare fund for unorganised labour, among others.

Dasgupta said the AIADMK government was against the Centre's policies and sought Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's support for the strike. "I know she is against Central government policies," he said.

Eleven registered trade unions have backed the strike, he said.