From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: The country-wide bandh (Bharat bandh) called by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) against the recent steep hike in petroleum prices brought life to a grinding halt throughout Assam and other northeastern states.
The bandh was total in three main cities of the State – Guwahati, Jorhat, Dibrugarh, Silchar, Tinsukia, Sivasagar, Golaghat etc. The bandh have brought bus and truck services to a halt throughout the State as well as the region.
There was very low attendance of staff in government offices while education institutions, banks and other financial institutions did not function at all in Assam. All the shops and other business establishment kept their shutters down for the day.
Police arrested about 50 bandh supporters in Guwahati when they tried to prevent movement of even few private vehicles on the road by lighting fire on the road in from the State Secretariat complex and at Ambari area in the city.
Members of the opposition BJP and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) blocked roads in many parts of the state during the bandh period.
Vehicles were off the state highways rendering the long-distance passenger bus services out of operation for the day especially in Assam. However, railway and air services were not affected because of the bandh while most of the tea estates in Assam functioned as usual despite the bandh call given by the NDA.
Our Agartala Correspondent adds: The normal came to a grinding halt in Tripura following 12-hour bandh, even as no untoward incident was reported.
The public transport system suffered badly with vehicles remained off the road while several flights have been cancelled due to the bandh.
Shutters of shopping malls, markets, banks shops were down while attendance in government office was near-zero in response to the bandh.
Air service and train services also badly affected with BJP activists staged demonstration in different places of the capital town.
At least 24 persons were detained from different places of the capital town during the bandh but no untoward incident was reported so far, said a senior police officer.
CPM state secretary Bijan Dhar congratulated the people for making the bandh a grand success. “The success of bandh is the reflection of the people’s angry over the functioning of the UPA government”, he said.
Dhar also slammed the Congress for demand of rolling back of 20 percent tax on fuel. “It seems Congress has been shielding the anti-people policies of the UPA government by raising demand of tax on fuel”, he said.
BJP state unit president Sudhindra Dasgupta also thanked the people to make the bandh a total in the state. Terming the UPA government as anti-people, he mentioned the petrol price was Rs. 35.13/ litre when the NDA was in power. “The UPA government has increased the fuel price 36 times in the past eight years making common people life miserable”, he said.
PTI adds from Itanagar: The dawn-to-dusk bandh called by NDA against petrol hike disrupted normal life in Arunachal Pradesh including the state capital Itanagar.
All business establishments, educational institutions, central government offices and banking institutions remained closed while attendances in state government offices remained thin, official sources said.
Streets of Itanagar wore a deserted look with all commercial, public and private vehicles remaining off the road.
However, state transport buses were seen plying with escorts.
The bandh enforcers, however, exempted students who are appearing in the joint engineering and medical entrance examinations being conducted today.
The bandh remained peaceful with no reports of breach of law and order in any part of the state, police said.
UNI adds from Imphal:The nation-wide bandh called by NDA against the petrol price hike affected life in Manipur too.
Following the dawn-to-dask bandh called by the state unit of BJP and other organisations, all inter and intra-state passenger services were suspended.
Streets were deserted, educational institutes, banking institutes were also closed down. Oil depots and shops preffered to keep their shutters down.
BJP said it opposed the hike in petrol price by Rs 7.52 per litre.
It was alleged that the government’s argument about the increase in international prices is bogus as even at the present global prices, the petrol would be available at Rs 35 per litre, if there are no taxes.
Petrol and Diesel are charged with 100 per cent taxes it was alleged.
It was demanded that the government should review its taxation policies.
India is clearly one of the high taxation regimes in the world as far as petroleum products are concerned, the party claimed and added if the Centre is eager to reform the administrative price regime, it must first look into the efficiencies of the three oil sector PSUs.
BJP, Manipur Pradesh demanded that consumer should not be asked to pay more either for subsidising the inefficiencies of oil PSUs or jacking up profits of the private oil companies.
Sit-in protests were also held at Dharmashala organised by the business community against the hike in petrol price.
The Janata Dal (United), Trinamool Congress, Manipur People’s Party, CPI also supported the strike in the state.
So far there is no report of any untoward incident and security personnel were on vigil at all strategic areas.