Public transport remained affected for the second day in Kerala on Wednesday as the two-day countrywide strike by trade unions ended with isolated incidents of violence and road/rail blockade being reported from across the State.
The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation buses did not operate most of its fleet. Some of the private operators ran skeletal services at some places but commuters had a tough time for the second day.
Traders’ defiance
What, however, stood out was the organised defiance against the hartal by merchants and shopkeepers, especially in Kozhikode and Kochi.
Trade and business functioned almost normally in Kozhikode. The city had witnessed violence, lathicharge and bursting of tear gas shells during a hartal on January 3 called by the Sabarimala Karma Samithy.
Buses of the public utility stayed off the road in Kozhikode but private buses came out in droves, helping the cause of the merchant community.
Reports reaching here said that up to 70 per cent of shops and establishments on the arterial SM Road remained open on Wednesday. Most hotels too followed suit. Private schools functioned to a large extent though government schools did not.
There was no attempt by the strikers to forcibly pull down shutters in the context of a strict warning from the police that any such misadventure would be firmly dealt with.
Untoward incident
In Thiruvananthapuram, demonstrators stormed the Manager’s cabin at a State Bank of India branch in the vicinity of the State Secretariat and ransacked it. At least 15 people entered the branch that houses the treasury, vandalised the cabin, broke electronic equipment and threatened the Branch Manager.
The police said the culprits, who included leaders of a strong government employees’ union, have been identified from the security cameras. Non-bailable charges are being invoked against them for destruction of public property.
Earlier in the morning, strikers blocked trains originating from here as well as from other places in the state in a near-repeat of the events on Tuesday.