Brand Bengaluru takes beating

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The nation-wide bandh called by the BJP-led NDA and Left parties to protest against the hike in diesel prices and allowing FDI in retail saw the normally buzzing IT city shutting down completely on Thursday.

While the holiday for Ganesh Chaturthi on Wednesday provided techies with a welcome mid-week break, the bandh was a forced holiday that very few welcomed as the entire city virtually came to a standstill with businesses downing shutters in high streets, malls, theatres and schools and colleges also remaining closed for the day.

Infosys and Wipro announced a holiday for its employees on Thursday but asked them to report to work on Saturday to compensate for the forced holiday. “Our employees were been moved into our facilities on Wednesday night and provided transport and accommodation while security has been beefed up. More than the loss that we incur due to the bandh, it is a tremendous loss of credibility for the country which is known the world over for its global delivery of IT and BPO services, and sends out the wrong message to our global customers”, said D. Swaminathan, CEO of Infosys BPO.

Wipro sent out an official e-mail asking project managers to make sure that their global clients are informed of the holiday on Thursday and subsequent working day on September 22 in order to meet business requirements. It was work as usual for Cisco, Akamai, Hewlett-Packard and IBM employees, a majority of whom worked out of home while a few bravehearts made it to office.

Some companies had even requested their staff to work on Ganesha Chaturthi, Wednesday, to meet work schedules. Apprehending trouble, big establishments, malls and showrooms had covered their premises with nylon nets to make sure they did not suffer any damage in stone-throwing. The CBD was quiet and largely free of traffic. Government offices too saw thin attendance.

Commuters left high and dry
Bengalureans who could bank on private buses and cabs during the recent bus strike, were left to fend for themselves as even they went off the roads on Thursday. Many trudged for miles before coming across autos which only fleeced them. State Transport Corporations claimed they did not want to take any chances by running services and have buses damaged as they had already suffered huge losses on account of the two-day transport strike.

BMTC managing director K.R. Shrinivasa claimed that although some services were resumed at 10 am, there were hardly any takers for them. “Post noon, around 300 buses were operated as the situation was under control and only minor cases of stone-pelting were reported”,he maintained.
Long-distance KSRTC buses too were taken off the roads following reports of stone-pelting on the city's outskirts. “Many buses left Bengaluru around 5.30 am, but returned because of the protests. We had few bookings anyway for day buses and so the cancellations did not matter very much. But our night buses will run as always,” said KSRTC Managing Director Manjunath Prasad.