From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Normal life was severely affected due to the 12-hour dawn-to- dusk Assam bandh called by the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), anti-talks faction, in protest against the visit of the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to city on Friday to attend two functions including the inauguration of Platinum Jubilee of Assam Assembly.
All the business establishments, education institutions remained closed while public transport system has been thrown out of gear in Guwahati and other urban areas of Brahmaputra Valley during the bandh hours. However, some private vehicles are plying on deserted looking streets in Guwahati and other parts of the state.
The state government hadinstructed its employees to attend offices during the bandh hours to avoid being penalized for unauthorized absence. However, attendance in government offices was thin because of conveyance problem during such bandh call.
The capital was put under tight vigil because of the ULFA bandh on the occasion of PM’s visit and police have arrested two ULFA cadres from Chandmari area in the city while they were coming collect extortion money.
The administration has made the arterial Guwahati-Shillong road in the city out of bounds for any kind of vehicle for several hours since 11 A.M. as a precautionary measure as the PM’s cavalcade was using that route after he reached Nehru Stadium playground in the heart of the city by a chopper from the airport.
The Prime Minister inaugurated the ‘physical facility of the state-of-the-art Linear Accelerator with Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy, Image-Guided Radiation Therapy and SRS/SRT’.
The Minister for Development of North-eastern Region (DONER) and the Chairman of the North Eastern Council chairman, Pawan Singh Ghatowar, welcomed the PM at the B Borooah Cancer Institute.