Mamata shuns bandh, asks EC for ban of striking pol parties

On Wednesday, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that all political parties who call bandhs should be banned. She will go to the Election Commission about it, she said. Banerjee has been appealing to the people of Bengal to reject the strike, reduce the number of mandays lost and look forward to more holidays in the pujas for the last few days.

The CM arrived early at the state secretariat on Wednesday. State finance mnister Amit Mitra also visited departments and tried to encourage staff who had turned up despite the strike.  Banerjee, who said that some departments recorded 100 per cent attendance, toured the city for 45 minutes and reported that many shops were open and so were the wholesale markets.

Local trains and long distance trains remained regular but the passenger turnout was less than other working days. No major obstructions were reported. At the airports, the flight take off and departures were normal except for a few stray incidents of delay. ATC workers stayed the night at the airport to avoid trouble.

On Thursday, transport is expected to be normal as it is exempted from the purview of the strike.