Activists of Left trade unions take out a march in support of the two-day Bharat Bandh called to protest against the Centre's policies that are allegedly affecting farmers and workers, in Thiruvananthapuram, Monday, March 28, 2022. (PTI Photo)Bharat Bandh Live News: Hours after a division bench of the Kerala High Court directed the state government to issue orders forthwith to prevent government servants from engaging in the 48-hour general strike, the government declared that unauthorised absence of employees participating in the strike would be treated as ‘dies non’. The order comes as a setback to the trade unions affiliated to the ruling CPI(M) as well as Opposition Congress, which have actively taken part in the first day of the general strike called against the policies of the Centre.
Offices across Kerala reported only thin attendance on Monday and all educational institutions remained closed. In West Bengal, supporters of the two-day nationwide strike Monday put up rail and road blockades in various places. Left workers were seen blocking railway tracks in Jadavpur, Dum Dum, Barasat, Shyamnagar, Belgharia, Joynagar, Domjur, and other places to protest against the Centre’s policies. The police later lifted the blockades to resume rail services.
A joint forum of central trade unions, supported by the All India Bank Employees Association, has called for a nationwide strike today (March 28) and tomorrow (March 29) against the Central government’s policies affecting workers, farmers, and people in general. The decision comes following a meeting on March 22 where the trade unions said that they would protest against the Centre’s “anti-worker, anti-farmer, anti-people and anti-national policies”. The bank unions are participating to protest against the government’s plan to privatise public sector banks, as well as the Banking Laws Amendment Bill 2021.
Most shops in Kochi remained shut owing to the Bharat Bandh. (Express Photo)
Public dealings at some bank branches were hit and public transport services were thrown out of gear in a few states, including West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, as thousands of workers on Monday began a two-day nationwide strike to protest against policies of the Union government.
Workers staged protests at several places, and unions claimed the agitation has had an impact in coal mining belts in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
However, essential services like healthcare, electricity and fuel supplies remained unaffected and public offices as well as educational institutions were not impacted by the strike, which was called by nearly a dozen trade unions, news agency PTI reported. Read more
Hours after a division bench of Kerala High Court directed the state government to issue orders forthwith to prevent government servants from engaging in the 48-hour general strike, the government declared that unauthorised absence of employees participating in the strike would be treated as ‘dies non'.
The order comes as a setback to the trade unions affiliated to the ruling CPI(M) as well as Opposition Congress, which have actively taken part in the first day of the general strike called against the policies of the Centre. Offices across Kerala reported only thin attendance on Monday and all educational institutions remained closed. (ENS)
The joint forum of central trade unions on Monday said that bandh-like situation prevailed in at least eight states due to the nationwide strike against various policies of the government. The two-day strike began on Monday. "There is a bandh-like situation in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Assam, Haryana and Jharkhand," the forum said in a statement. According to the forum, agitations were held in many industrial areas across states like Goa, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. --PTI
Kerala High Court directs the state government to issue an order restricting the state government employees from participating in the two-day nationwide strike/Bharat Bandh. Court also observes that it is illegal that state government employees are participating in the strike.
Several independent sectoral federations and bank associations have also joined the two-day Bharat Bandh. “Our united struggle is not only to save the rights and lives/livelihood of people but also save the country’s economy and the entire democratic system and the society as a whole from disaster and destruction being engineered by the authoritarian forces in governance with the active support of private corporates, both domestic and foreign, and decisively defeat the disastrous policy regime and their political operators in governance,” the trade unions had said while announcing the strike in December.
Essential services, including transport and banking, were crippled in several states as the two-day Bharat Bandh announced by several central trade unions belonging to all political hues barring the RSS-affiliated BMS began Monday. This is the second such nationwide shutdown called by the trade unions after the Narendra Modi government returned to power at the Centre in 2019.
The strike by central trade unions comes at a time when the economy is slowly recovering from the impact of the lockdowns imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Interestingly, the strike call was given in consultation with the leadership of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which spearheaded the agitation against the three central farm laws. Ever since the farmers’ agitation, at least the Left parties had been talking about a growing synergy between farmers and the working class. The trade unions have put forward a 12-point charter of demands. Apart from this, the trade unions—including Congress's INTUC, CPM's CITU, CPI's AITUC and others like HMS, AIUTUC, TUCC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF, and UTUC—are also demanding that the government accept the six-point charter of demands put forward by the SKM after the repeal of the three farm laws.
In Panchkula, members of the Haryana Roadway Union were protesting outside the ISBT during two-day strike called on Monday. Cops have been stationed at the bus terminus to avoid any untoward incident.
Public transportation services took a hit in several areas of Tamil Nadu on Monday owing to the two-day nationwide strike called by trade unions. Students, office-goers and the general public were left stranded at bus stands since early morning. According to the latest data, only 33 per cent of government buses were operating in Tamil Nadu. In Chennai, around 10 per cent of buses were running since morning. Of the 3,175 buses in Chennai, which are maintained by the Metropolitan Transport Corporation, only 318 were running.
The All India Bank Employees Association’s two-day nationwide strike has evoked a good response in Delhi. The bank unions are participating to protest against the government’s plan to privatise public sector banks, as well as the Banking Laws Amendment Bill 2021.
Supporters of the two-day nationwide strike on Monday put up rail and road blockades in various areas in West Bengal to impose the bandh. Functionaries of the Left parties were seen blocking railway tracks in Jadavpur, Dum Dum, Barasat, Shyamnagar, Belgharia, Joynagar, Domjur and other places to protest against the Centre's policies. Road blockades were put up in Golpark, Lake Town, Baguihati and other areas of Kolkata. A scuffle also broke out between the supporters and the police in Jadavpur. Another rally was taken out by SUCI (C) from Rashbehari to Bhowanipore and then to Lake Market.
Such road and rail blockades were also seen in the districts of West Midnapore, West Burdwan, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, Birbhum, Hooghly, North 24 Paragans, South 24 Parganas, Howrah. The protests disrupted railway services for some time.
Claiming that the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal is showing its true colours by opposing a two-day bandh call from Monday against the Centre's policies, CITU state president Anadi Sahu said that the Left trade unions, student bodies and supporters will be on the streets to make the strike a success. Sahu on Sunday said that the Trinamool Congress government's order making it mandatory for all employees to report for work on these two days shows that despite hardships faced by people across the country owing to the price rise of essential goods, including petrol, diesel, cooking gas and food items, it is trying to use coercive tactics to foil the nationwide strike called by a joint forum of central trade unions. (PTI)
Despite a call by the West Bengal government that it would not support the nationwide strike, functionaries and supporters of the CPI-M organised protest marches and stopped trains at Jadavpur station in Kolkata.
Apart from banks, workers from various other sectors such as steel, oil, telecom, coal, postal, income tax, copper, and insurance are expected to participate in the strike. The unions in railways and defence sector are expected to make mass mobilisation in support of strike at several hundreds of spots. Roadways, transport workers and electricity workers have decided to join the strike.
Good morning and welcome to our Blog. The call for the nationwide strike today has been given by a joint forum of central trade unions, to protest against government policies affecting workers, farmers, and people. Amarjeet Kaur from the All Indian Trade Union Congress General Secretary, told PTI that they are expecting participation of over 20 crore formal and informal workers with mass mobilisation of workers across the country. Follow this space for latest news and updates