Banks shut, public transport disrupted by commerce union strike in Bengal

The 48-hour nationwide strike known as by commerce unions in opposition to the “anti-labour” insurance policies of the Centre shut down banks and ATM counters throughout Bengal on Monday whereas native prepare and bus companies had been disrupted in a number of districts.

The strike will proceed on Tuesday.

State police officers mentioned a number of authorities buses had been ransacked by supporters of the strike in north Bengal, particularly in Cooch Behar district. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who’s on a four-day tour of north Bengal, requested the police to lodge first info studies (FIR) in opposition to the supporters of the strike.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) authorities handed a regulation a couple of years in the past underneath which individuals ransacking public automobiles and property are liable to pay for the losses.

Left events, particularly the Communist Occasion of India (Marxist), or CPI (M), and its frontal organisations and the CPI-ML (Liberation) took the lead in observing the overall strike in Bengal. The Congress and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, the umbrella physique of peasants’ unions, additionally joined them.

Nationwide highways had been blocked in a number of locations, police officers mentioned.

In Howrah, 12 CPI (M) employees had been arrested for blocking roads.

The strike observers obtained into altercations with the police in a number of districts akin to East Burdwan, West Midnapore, Howrah, Nadia, Bankura, Purulia, South 24 Parganas and Hooghly once they forcefully stopped buses.

Native trains had been stopped at a number of places.

The commerce unions mentioned in a press release on Monday afternoon that 60% of the tea gardens in north Bengal and 24 out of 54 jute mills in south Bengal had been fully closed. “Attendance at the remainder of the jute mills ranged from 60 to 80%. All non-public transport operators throughout Bengal took half within the strike,” the assertion mentioned.

Attendance of employees at coal mines and metal industries was round 30% and 25% respectively, the unions mentioned.

In Kolkata, round 60% radio taxi drivers took half within the strike, the assertion added.