IT units report 85% turnout

Salt Lake's Sector V, the IT hub of Kolkata that houses some 300 small to big size IT and ITeS companies, saw attendance of close to 85 per cent on Wednesday. The sector currently employs around 55,000.

According to most IT and BPO companies operating from Sector V, IT and ITeS falls under public utility services and therefore, work was normal especially because the sector serves interests of several foreign companies.

Even employees who work in the UK and US shifts in BPOs, that typically start from 3pm and 9pm respectively, reported for work.

According to Siddharth, the IT secretary of the state, BPOs and most IT companies of Sector V functioned normally and travellers did not face a problem.

A few of the software companies in Sector V saw attendance of close to 40 per cent, said official sources.

According to Debanjan Datta, CMD of Webel, "We have held review meetings with the IT companies today and they have all confirmed that work at the sector was normal. Food courts in the area were also open."

The 24-hour bandh called by the Forward Bloc (FB) was called off after 12 hours at 6pm.