Tomorrow’s Bharat Bandh likely to cripple life in Bengal ..

Kolkata, 7 Jan(HS): Tomorrow’s 24 hour ‘Bharat Bandh’, called by the Left Parities and a large number of  Central trade unions, is likely to cripple the normal life in West Bengal along with several other parts of the country, in spite of the government decision to oppose the bandh and keep all offices and business establishments open and maintain normal movement of traffic on the roads.

West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha in a communique here today had asked all departmental heads to take steps to maintain ‘absolute normalcy’ in all government offices in the state tomorrow.

‘If anybody remains absent without any proper reason, he or she should face strong disciplinary action as per law, he said and indicated that apart from deducting one day’s salary, some other steps might also be taken to cut short the working period by a day for all those who would violate the government order.

It may be recalled that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee while extending her support to the causes for which the band has been called by the opposition Left Parties, had, however, made it clear yesterday that the ruling Trinamool Congress would ‘oppose the nationwide bandh’ in accordance with her party’s announced stand against any bandh call by any party.

But in spite of her decision, normal life is likely to be crippled to a great extent tomorrow as all the nine major bank Officers and Employees unions in the country have extended their full support to tomorrow’s bandh call and have decided to down their shutters for the day along with those of ATM counters.

According to All India Bank Employees Union General Secretary Rajen Nagar, a vast majority of over 6 crore bank employees of all public and private sector banks in the country have decided to stay away from work tomorrow to express their solidarity with the bandh supporters. At the same time, he also expressed his deep regret for causing inconveniences to many bank customers for the closure of banking services tomorrow.

 West Bengal state Secretary of Cpi-m Suryakanta Mishra and the party’s state committee leader Sujan Chakraborty during an interaction today, explained the reasons behind calling the nationwide bandh tomorrow to protest the country’s ongoing economic slowdown and several alleged anti-people measures of the union government. They also reiterated their determination to close down all activities in the state tomorrow.

‘Apart from closure of all offices, business establishments, shopping malls, and markets throughout West Bengal along with several other states, the vehicular traffic would also go off the roads in support of the bandh call’, they said and claimed overwhelming support from the general public in favor of the bandh.

‘The people are now very angry and frustrated against the anti-people policies of the union government and want to vent their anger and frustration through such a peaceful means like bandh,’ they said and informed about the party’s decision to bring out a number of processions and rallies today to make the people aware of the Bandh call.

Meanwhile, West Bengal state BJP President Dilip Ghosh, like the Chief Minister has also opposed the bandh call and said under the present circumstances the Left parties had lost all their relevance in the country. Tomorrow’s nationwide Bandh call on nonissues would not evoke any response anywhere in the country including in West Bengal where the people were disillusioned over their functioning, as well as those of the ruling Trinamool Congress’, he said.