Life and industrial operations remained near normal in Coimbatore City and district on Tuesday even as the trade unions had called for a nation-wide general strike condemning the economic polices of the Centre and soaring prices of essential commodities.
The “shed-out” of buses from the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation were on time and almost all the fleets were on the roads and call taxis were on the roads excepting for a section of the autorickshaws that kept off the road.
Attendance was reported normal in State Government offices.
There were cases of staff members who reported for duty staging demonstrations condemning the Central government. Thin attendance and setback to normal functioning was reported from banks, insurance firms and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited offices.
However, there was no inconvenience faced by the customers as almost all the ATM machines were loaded to their capacity on Monday night.
Adequate police pickets were posted at bus stands, railway stations and at all vantage locations on order to prevent incidents of violence or vandalism taking place.
Till dusk no untoward incident was reported anywhere in the district.
Industries here were unaffected by the nation-wide strike on Tuesday as operations continued unaffected at the engineering and textile units here.
Movement of broiler birds (poultry) to Kerala was slightly affected.
However, it would not have any major impact on the industry, according to the president of the State Broiler Co-ordination Committee R. Lakshman.
Trade union activists numbering more than 750 including women representing a number of trade unions staged a demonstration at Gandhipuram flaying the centre for its “flawed” economic policies and price rise.
Government employees numbering more than 100 staged a demonstration in front of Red Cross Society Buildings on Huzur Road flaying the Government while Government College Teachers Association took out a procession in Sidhapudur pressing for a charter of demands relating to GPF, pension and price rise.
Our Tirupur Staff Reporter adds:
The all-India general strike called by central trade unions on Tuesday affected the textile production and banking operations in the district to a considerable extent but did not affect the normal public life much.
The day passed off by and large peaceful barring a few incidents of road blockades and one attempted rail roko by a section of strike observers.
The public transport buses operated by both the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation and the private operators conducted regular services without any disruption. Likewise, the shops, cinema halls and hotels functioned as usual.
In the banking sector, clearance and other cash transactions were disrupted significantly as the employees affiliated to All India Bank Employees Association and Bank Employees Federation of India struck work.
However, the employees of State Bank of India did not take part in the strike.
According to industry sources, about 75 percent of the units in Tirupur knitwear cluster did not function owing to non-arrival of Left-leaning labourers for work.
But sources added that many companies ran additional shifts during the previous evening and in the night to make up the production loss expected on the day and thereby meet the delivery deadlines of their buyers.
Meanwhile, a total of 1,492 members of CITU and AITUC were arrested when they created road blockades at Tirupur, Avinashi, Palladam, Udumalpet, Dharapuram and Kangayam, and attempted rail roko at Uthukuli.
The unionists were protesting the price rise, disinvestment policy of the Central Government and violation of labour laws.
