Kolkata, Sep 7 (IANS) A political activist was shot dead and 14 others injured in clashes during a one-day nationwide strike called by nine trade unions affiliated to the Congress and Left parties that crippled life in West Bengal Tuesday. Air and vehicular movement was severely affected.
An activist of the main opposition Trinamool Congress was shot dead and five other people, including a woman, were seriously injured in bombings allegedly carried out by the ruling Left Front’s Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) workers at Nanoor in Birbhum district.
The two parties had clashed over political turf, said Birbhum Superintendent of Police Humayun Kabir.
Three offices of the CPI-M were damaged and three party cadres injured in alleged attacks by Trinamool Congress activists in Nandiram and Contai of East Midnapore district.
Trinamool activists took out processions and tried to force open shops that had remained closed since morning in Bankura, North 24 Parganas and Hooghly districts leading to clashes that left six injured, said district police officials.
Five strike supporters were arrested for ransacking a restaurant at Park Circus in South Kolkata, while 43 Trinamool activists were arrested for staging a noisy demonstration before the state secretariat defying prohibitory orders, police officials said.
Elsewhere in the state, over 1,200 political activists were taken into custody for law violations.
The strike virtually paralysed commercial activities and vehicular movement in the state. Markets and shops remained closed.
However, with the Trinamool taking out processions, a few shops and markets opened as the day wore on.
A total of 129 flights run by private airlines to and from Kolkata were cancelled. However, 22 Air India flights including one on the Kolkata-Dhaka-Bangkok international route took off from the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (NSCB) International Airport.
‘We have cancelled the Kolkata-Kathmandu flight and combined some domestic flights,’ an Air India spokesman told IANS.
The city, which bustles with activity on normal weekdays, saw empty roads as vehicles did not venture out while the strike was total in industrial areas like Taratala.
Government and private buses did not ply and most people chose to remain indoors. The information technology sector was partially hit, while tea gardens remained largely unaffected by the strike.
Leaders of the CPI-M-backed labour wing Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) claimed that the strike was total in Haldia port.
Banks, other offices and commercial establishments remained closed. Many schools, though unofficially, asked students not to come Tuesday to save them from any inconvenience on the roads.
The strike paralysed the industrial belt on both sides of the Hooghly river in Hooghly, Howrah and North 24-Parganas districts, with workers supporting the strike picketing the factories’ gates.
Railway and Metro Railway services remained normal as they were kept outside the purview of the strike, though only a handful of commuters availed of these modes of transport.
The minority dominated areas of the state were also exempted from the strike as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is on. But most shops and markets in these belts also remained closed as traders from other areas could not reach their workplace due to transport problems.
The CITU claimed the strike was spontaneous and total and congratulated the masses for responding to the call given by the trade unions.
‘We will organise more such strikes if our demands are not met by the central government. If necessary we will lay siege to parliament early next year,’ CITU state general secretary Kali Ghosh told mediapersons.
The Trinamool Congress flayed the CPI-M and the CITU for organizing frequent shutdowns and using muscle power to enforce the strike.
‘There have been three shutdowns over the last 45 days. They are misusing the weapon of shutdowns,’ said Trinamool heavyweight and leader of the opposition in the state assembly Partha Chattopadhyay.
The strike was called by the coordination committee of Central Trade Unions headed by Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) president G. Sanjeeva Reddy. It was called by the nine trade unions to protest rising prices, violation of labour laws and privatisation, among other issues.
