Dear Comrades,
Work came to a halt in most public sector banks and insurance
companies and road transport services crawled in large parts of India as
millions of workers participated in the one-day general strike called
today by all the eleven Central Trade Unions (CTUs).
The strike, first since independence to bring all the CTUs on a
single platform, was to protest increased prices of food items, rising
unemployment, frequent violation of labour laws and contractualisation
of workforce in the government and private companies.
Gurudas Dasgupta, general secretary of the All India Trade Union
Congress described today’s strike as ‘unprecedented’ and ‘overwhelming’.
Dasgupta warned the government of submitting to the trade unions’
demands. “I hope the government listens to us, otherwise, there will be
another such strike.”
Banking and insurance sector companies were the worst affected as
clerical staff in all major public sector banks and insurance companies
abstained from work. According to C H Venkatachalam, general secretary,
All India Bank Employee Association, over 800,000 employees of public
and private sector banks, Reserve Bank of India and regional
co-operative banks, participated in the strike. Another 40,000 workers
in the public sector insurance companies also participated in the
strike.
“The strike in the banks was a total success,” Venkatachalam said.
“Work in RBI and State Bank of India was seriously affected due to the
strike. In most banks, cash transactions, cheque clearing, foreign
exchange operations and government transactions could not be carried out
due to the strike,” he added.
However, most banks remained open as a major officers’ union, All
India Bank Employee Association (AIBEA), didn’t take part in the strike.
It is believed that the AIBEA will go on a separate strike opposing
banking sector reforms in March.
Road transport services in most states were also affected with unions
of state government transport corporations supporting the strike.
However, air traffic and rail services largely remained unaffected.
Tax collections were also partially hit as workers in the Income Tax
department joined the strike. Though the unions claimed that a large
number of Group C, Group D and gazetted officers went on strike, all
offices of the I-T department were open.
Work was also affected at all the major ports and docks of the
country with all five major workers’ unions of ports and dock workers
participating in the strike. The operations at the Mumbai Port Trust and
the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) were affected. JNPT, which
handles 60 per cent of the total container traffic in the country, saw a
drop of 75 per cent in cargo handling. Work was also affected at the
Vishakhapatnam port.
Partial work was affected at Coal India Limited (CIL) and its
subsidiaries. “Out of the total 453 running mines, 413 mines were open
while the remaining 40 were closed. Out of the closed mines, majority is
from the Western Coalfields. In other subsidiaries, there was not too
much of an impact,” said R Mohandas, director (personnel) of CIL.
However, Shyamal Chakravarty, state president of Centre of Indian
Trade Unions (CITU) claimed that the bandh was a success. “Seven flights
were cancelled and people did not turn up for work in support of the
bandh, which was a complete success,” he claimed.
Normal life was affected in Kerala despite the state government’s
enforcement of ‘dies non’ (no-work-no-play) order against the strike.
Reports from the state said transport, banking and government’s business
were disrupted in the state.
In West Bengal, chief minister Mamata Banerjee made all possible
efforts to maintain normal life largely ensuring adequate transport
services. However, the efforts of the government failed as most
transport services saw fewer passengers.
In Kolkata, most shops, markets and business establishments were
closed. While, five people were reportedly injured at Barasat in North
24 Parganas in a political clash, there were also reports that the
Trinamool Congress workers allegedly vandalised CPI(M)’s zonal committee
office at Jadavpur. Some journalists were also injured, in the
political clash at Jadavpur, in south Kolkata. However, Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee denied any such incident.
“All these were planned and staged,” Banerjee said. She
‘congratulated’ common people of the state for making the general strike
‘unsuccessful’. “This is the beginning of the end of the bandh regime,”
she said. Banerjee claimed there was “98 to 100 per cent attendance in
all government offices in the state”.
With inputs from Kolkata and Hyderabad bureau
http://business-standard.com/india/news/strike-cripples-daily-life/466213/
