The Left Front’s Bharat Bandh on Monday brought West Bengal to a grinding halt. On the first working day of the week, empty roads in Kolkata presented a surreal picture. The City of Joy looked like a ghost city. Old timers agreed that after a very long time the city witnessed such a total bandh. On the last few occasion, common people had come out of their homes and went to their work places defying the bandh. But on Monday, they remained indoors. And many taking advantage of an extended weekend, went for a holiday to Digha and Sundarbans.
CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose congratulated the people for a spontaneous bandh to protest the petroleum price hike. Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, however, said that the CPI(M) imposed the state-sponsored bandh on the hapless people who had no choice. Interestingly, even the BJP workers led by state party president Rahul Sinha came out on the streets to enforce the bandh.
The worst affected by the 12-hour shutdown were the passengers of the long-distance trains and airlines. A statement issued by the eastern railway said that bandh supporters resorted to blockades of the tracks at several places on Howrah, Sealdah, Malda and Asansol divisions. Many trains, including a Rajdhani Express remained stalled at some stations for hours together. Nearly three dozen eastern railway and south-eastern railway trains were cancelled. From Dum Dum airport, no private airline operated its flights in the domestic sector between 6 am to 6 pm. Airport director R. Srinivasan said, “Twenty-two domestic flights departed Kolkata and 11 arrived from 12 am to 6 pm. Six international flights departed and six flights have arrived.”
Nearly 400 passengers arriving from different destinations were left stranded at the airport due to the unavailability of taxis and other vehicles.
Schools, colleges, offices and markets were closed. The attendance at the state secretariat Writers’ Buildings was virtually nil. Out of over 5,000 employees, only 16 reported for work. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee arrived on time but no other minister took the trouble.
At the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, mayor Sovan Chatterjee, chairman Sachidanand Banerjee and a number of MMiCs attended office. Mr Chatterjee claimed that a substantial work force in conservancy and water departments was present but a visit to the various departments belied his claim.