A 12-hour Bangla bandh called by the Socialist Unity Centre of India to protest spiralling prices of essential commodities disrupted train services in both Eastern and South Eastern railway sections on Tuesday.
However, the bandh, which has also been called to demand withdrawal of joint forces’ operation against Maoists in Lalgarh, had little impact on normal life with markets, educational institutions and offices remaining open.
Eastern Railway sources said that bandh supporters threw banana trees on overhead power supply lines at Bira and Guma stations disrupting train services in the Sealdah section and on the Sealdah-Ranaghat section.
In the Bandel-Burdwan section in Howrah section, the picketers squatted on the tracks at Khannan station. They also put up blockades on the Howrah-Burdwan chord line section at Gobra disrupting services.
A number of mail and express trains have been held up en route, sources said.
A South Eastern railway spokesman said the bandh enforcers put up a blockade at Ramrajatala on the Howrah-Kharagpur section.
As a result several mail and express trains were held up, including down Bombay Mail, sources said.
Flight operations at the NSC Bose International airport were normal. Airport sources said passengers had been asked to reach the airport much ahead of the scheduled departure of flights in view of the bandh call.
Road communication was, however, affected in parts of South 24 Parganas where the SUCI has a stronghold.
SUCI ally Trinamool Congress is not supporting the bandh as also the opposition Congress.
Trinamool Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee, had said that her party would not support the bandh as it inconvenienced the people.
SUCI state secretary Provas Ghosh had alleged that “In the name of hunting down Maoists (in Lalgarh), the joint forces were committing torture on innocent citizens in Junglemahal”.
