Trade strike partially hits normal life

Kolkata: Normal life was partially hit in West Bengal on Tuesday as sporadic incidents of vandalism and disruptions were reported from various areas during the central trade unions’ 48-hour nationwide strike in protest against the “pro-corporate, anti-national and anti-people” policies of the Narendra Modi government.

While the leaders of the trade unions and state’s left parties termed the strike as successful and claimed the scenes would be repeated across the state even on Wednesday, state’s ruling Trinamool Congress dubbed the impact of the trade strike as “negligible”.

Public transport was disrupted for some time as strike supporters put up rail and road blockades at various places since morning.

A number of senior Left leaders including CPI-M’s Sujan Chakraborty and CITU state secretary Anadi Sahu were detained while picketing in Kolkata.

They were released later. The state Left leadership accused the Trinamool Congress government of indirectly supporting the Central government’s activities by opposing the strike here and claimed that the Trinamool and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have a secret understanding.

“The Trinamool Congress government in Bengal would not allow any protest against the Modi government’s anti-people policies. The Trinamool and the BJP make a public show of opposing each other, but they help each other covertly. The Bengal government is backing the atrocities of the Modi government by opposing the strike,” Left Front Chairman Biman Basu claimed.

He also accused the police of deliberately beating up prominent Left leaders before arresting them to terrorise the strike supporters and common people. Train services were disrupted both in Howrah and Sealdah divisions of the Eastern Railway and South Eastern Railway.

Strike supporters put up blockades at a number of stations in East and West Bardhaman, Birbhum, Hoogly, North and South 24 Parganas districts and obstructed train movement. In Kolkata, many public and private buses were seen plying on the roads. The strike supporters ransacked a number of buses and trucks and demonstrated on busy city streets including the Central Avenue by torching tyres. (IANS)

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