By IANS,
New Delhi : A day-long strike called by Left parties against the central government’s fuel price hike paralysed normal life in the three Left-ruled states of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, with flight and train schedules affected in Kolkata and Agartala.
A day after the government announced the fuel hike, protest demonstrations were held by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other opposition parties in other states, while in some places the activists burnt the effigies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
In the three Left-ruled states, the strike was complete with shops, business establishments and educational institutions remaining closed. Streets were deserted and vehicles remained off the roads to oppose the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s decision to increase the prices of petrol by Rs.5 a litre, diesel by Rs.3 per litre and cooking gas by Rs.50
per cylinder.
While the BJP joined with the communists in Kerala and Karnataka in the protest Thursday, the main opposition Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and Tripura would observe a shutdown Friday.
In West Bengal, cadres of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) squatted on railway tracks, pulled passengers out of taxis, picketed before railway stations and took out processions waving red flags as the administration remained a mute spectator.
Markets and business establishments remained closed, raising the hackles of industrial honchos. In Kolkata, flight schedules went haywire and train services came to a halt as the strike paralysed life across the state.
Passengers had a trying time at the Kolkata international airport as flights were cancelled, while train services were disrupted in both south-eastern and eastern railways.
“These shutdowns send wrong signals. Regular work atmosphere comes to a halt due to these sort of agitations,” Ambuja Realty Group chairman Harshvardhan Neotia told IANS in Kolkata.
The governments in West Bengal and Kerala played their part in ensuring the shutdown was a success by keeping the state-run transport services off the roads.
“We had no option but to protest in this manner because several of our suggestions were being continuously ignored by the Manmohan Singh government,” said Paniyan Ravindran, Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram.
University examinations, which were to be held Thursday, were postponed in the three states. However, the Kerala State Public Service Commission decided not to postpone its scheduled interviews.
In Tripura, most markets, shops and business establishments, government and semi-government offices and educational institutions were closed. Roads wore a deserted look.
Bus services between Tripura and Bangladesh and other northeastern states were cancelled.
National carrier Alliance Air and other private airlines either cancelled or rescheduled many flights on the Agartala-Kolkata-Guwahati-Silchar routes.
“The strike is peaceful across the state and no untoward incident was reported from anywhere in the state,” said police spokesman Nepal Das in Agartala.
Even the World Environmental Day celebrations were affected in Tripura. The government has postponed the programmes to Saturday.
India’s IT hub Bangalore and the rest of Karnataka Thursday showed little signs of being hit by Wednesday’s fuel price hike which has made both petrol and diesel the costliest in the country. Bangalore roads were as usual choc-a-bloc with public and private vehicles. Educational institutions, commercial establishments, banks and offices functioned normally.
Reports from other major towns of Karnataka like Mangalore, Mysore, Hubli, Shimoga, and Gulbarga said life was normal.
However, the BJP, CPI-M and Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) staged demonstrations in Bangalore and several district headquarters to protest the hike.
In BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and several of his cabinet colleagues pedalled to the state secretariat to highlight their protest. The chief minister and IT Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, Cooperatives Minister Gopal Bhargava, and Water Resources Minister Anup Mishra, along with others, cycled five-km to the state
secretariat.
In Jharkhand, the activists of the opposition BJP and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) observed a ‘black day’, burning effigies of Manmohan Singh.
In the Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh, the main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), BJP and Left parties along with their trade unions staged protests in the state capital Hyderabad and other major towns.
The TDP, CPI and CPI-M have called for a state-wide shutdown in Andhra Pradesh Friday, while the Telangana Rashtra Samiti urged people to observe a strike in their stronghold regions. The BJP also announced that it would block trains on Friday to protest the price hike.