Bengal registers sporadic violence across pockets as strike enforcers scuffle with police, TMC

Kolkata: Reports of violence were received from various pockets of West Bengal after Left-wing activists, supporting a countrywide general strike called by 10 central trade unions on Wednesday, clashed with police and TMC supporters in multiple districts, even as additional security forces were deployed to ensure normal life.

The strike was called against "liberalisation, price rise of essentials, joblessness, increase in contractual work and other issues".

Reinforcing its stand of zero-tolerance towards bandhs, the West Bengal police came down heavily on strike supporters, forcefully removing them from spaces where they attempted disruption of public life.

Despite those measures, strike sponsors blocked roads and railway tracks in various parts of the state and tried to force a shutdown of shops and establishments in some pockets in their efforts to enforce the strike which evoked partial response in the state.

Banking services, in both public and private sectors, were largely affected across Bengal.

DYFI and CPI(M) workers scuffled with police in Ganguly Bagan area in south Kolkata as they tried to block the thoroughfare, holding rush hour traffic to ransom, and threatened shopkeepers to down shutters. The protestors also burnt effigies and set alight tyres posing risk of a roadside fire, which the police quickly doused.

Police detained some strike supporters, including SFI leader Srijan Bhattacharya, who alleged that police used force to remove them when they were holding peaceful protests.

"The Mamata Banerjee police has sold itself to the TMC which, in turn, has sold its soul to the BJP. This strike was called against BJP's policies and look how the TMC government launched its crackdown on us. They won't even allow us to hold a peaceful rally in support of the strike," Bhattacharya alleged.

At the College Street crossing in the northern part of the city, SFI supporters clashed with police after the men in uniform tried to remove a road block and detain some protestors.

The scuffle turned nasty during attempts made by the bandh supporters to forcefully snatch the detainees from prison vans and escort them out of police grips.

At Domjur in the adjacent city of Howrah, police and RAF opened a lathi charge on bandh supporters who tried to stop buses and trucks from plying on roads.

On Hill Cart Road in the north Bengal town of Siliguri, police removed supporters of the strike when they tried to resort to blockades. In a scuffle that ensued, TV cameras caught a bandh supporter removing the cap of a police officer with a blow.

Cameras also caught the IC of the Banshihari police station in the Buniadpur area of Dakshin Dinajpur district slapping a local CPI-M leader, Majidur Rahaman, during a verbal spat.

CITU workers clashed and were subsequently chased by their INTTUC counterparts of the Trinamool Congress trade union wing in the Tufangunj town of Cooch Behar, leading to tension in the area.

In Birbhum's Kirnahar, Left and TMC workers clashed, allegedly in front of police, when the former group took out a rally in support of the strike. Three CPI-M supporters were reportedly injured and admitted to a local hospital..

Not far away in Rampurhat, police removed a Left blockade put up on NH 10 following which the protestors moved to the Rampurhat Railway Station with the intent of blocking railway tracks.

They were stopped by the railway police force, leading to a fresh spate of scuffle between the two sides. Supporters of the strike, which began at 6 am, tried to block train movement at Diamond Harbour in the Sealdah South section and Shyamnagar in the North Section of Eastern Railways' Sealdah division.

Reports of blockade of railway tracks were also received from Barrackpore, Konnagar, Durgapur, Lalgola, Uluberia and Belgharia stations later in the day.

The Bengal government made additional transport arrangements and security deployment to ensure that normal life was not impacted during the strike.

Police contingents were posted at important places to ensure the smooth movement of traffic.

Lashing out against police action on strike supporters, senior CPI-M leader Sujan Chakraborty said, "The Trinamool is trying to prove that it is more BJP than the BJP itself. It is only a matter of time that people's anger will override this autocratic regime."

"The Congress has supported this strike," said party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, adding that "the TMC is only brokering the politics of BJP in this state.

"Let Mamata Banerjee point out which of the demands for which this strike was called are illogical or wrong," he added.

"What the Left is doing in the name of bandh is nothing more than hooliganism and the police are taking action against these rowdies. This is not a spontaneous strike of people, but one that is forced upon them," responded TMC leader Debangshu Bhattacharya.

"The only Left-run government in the country in Kerala has also issued notification against the strike along the same lines the Bengal government has. And the strike supporters expect Mamata Banerjee, who has taken a consistent stand against strikes since 2011, to allow them to run amok on the streets?" he questioned.

According to West Bengal CITU president Anadi Sahu, 10 central trade unions called for the general strike against "liberalisation, price rise of essentials, joblessness, increase in contractual work and other issues".