Bengal snubs bandh call, CM hails govt employees

The traffic flow in the city remained smooth as the state government made adequate security arrangements and  deployed extra buses to ensure that commuters were not inconvenienced.

While talking to the media in Dubai, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that state government employees would get an extra day’s leave during the Pujas for their concerted effort to ensure that ordinary citizens faced no problems. She also expressed her satisfaction that the bandh had no impact in the state.

“The bandh will be unsuccessful and I will be personally monitoring the situation,” Chief Minister Banerjee, said at the Calcutta airport before leaving for Rome earlier on Friday morning.

Everything was normal in the city except for extra police deployment at various important intersections. However, in some sporadic incidents bandh supporters were involved in arguments with the police mostly in the southern parts of the city. Some bandh supporters took out a rally in Jadavpur under the leadership of Sujan Chakraborty. They tried to block the road when a huge contingent of police reached the spot and dispersed the supporters. In certain parts of the city such as Behala and Lake Market, the supporters of the Left Front took to the streets in support of the bandh. 

The Mayor of Siliguri Municipal Corporation and CPI (M) leader Ashoke Bhattacharya, and some other senior Left Front leaders were arrested in Siliguri in this connection. Till Friday evening several hundred bandh supporters were arrested from various parts of Bengal. Three public buses were attacked by supporters of the strike. Two buses have also been damaged by bandh supporters in two separate incidents. 

“Train services in the suburban sections of the South Eastern Railway remained mostly normal. Train services in some areas in Odisha were “slightly affected” on account of agitations in Jaleswar, Balasore and Birpada stations. Normalcy resumed after withdrawal of agitation,” a press statement said. Metro services were also normal in the city.

Suvendu Adhikari, state transport minister said: “Our purpose was to ensure that there were enough vehicles on the street so that people did not face any inconvenience going to their destinations.”

State minister for parliamentary affairs, Partha Chatterjee on Friday thanked all government and private sector employees for their efforts to thwart the bandh. While addressing the media at Nabanna, Chatterjee said that the attendance at government offices was around 98 per cent. “In Nabanna the attendance was around 98-99 per cent which is very significant. The employees helped the government in upholding the work culture that the Chief Minister has been trying to restore in the state,” Chatterjee said.

He also said that extra buses, vessels and trams were deployed so that people did not face any problems reaching their workplaces. Around 90 trams were in operation on Friday while on usual days around 80 trams ply in the city.