Bandh disrupts life in Jamshedpur, Seraikela-Kharswan

The Jharkhand bandh called by opposition parties in protest against Barkagaon police firing and move to change Chhotanagpur and Santal Paragana Tenancy Act disrupted normal life in the steel city in East Singhbhum district today and mixed response in adjoining Seraikela-Kharswan.
Shops and markets, petrol pumps, business establishments downed their shutters as road traffic was thin as majority of city buses, long-distance vehicles remained off the road apprehending violence, official sources said.
Around 900 bandh supporters including senior party leaders - former Jharkhand Minister Banna Gupta and Dulal Bhuiyan, Secretary of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) Abhay Singh - were rounded up in East Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharswan districts.

However, autorickshaws plied on road though in depleted numbers.
In steel city bandh supporters deflated tyres of some commercial vehicles and damaged few plying auto-rickshaws, the sources said adding activists of opposition parties Congress, JVM, Left parties took to the street in support of bandh.
Gupta, Bhuiyan and Singh, who were rounded up along with hundreds of supporters in Sakchi police station, claimed that the bandh was spontaneous and successful.

Gupta, who was arrested from his house in Kadma area, questioned the state government's intention behind arresting him even before he stepped out of his home whereas the bandh was being observed in a democratic and peaceful manner.

The bandh evoked mixed response in adjoining Seraikela-Kharswan district, where around 150 bandh activists were rounded up.
No untoward incident was reported from any part of the district so far, a police officer added.