Left strike brings Tata's car project to a standstill

Kolkata, Dec 14 (UNI) Work for the Tata Motors' small car project at Singur halted for a day as life in West Bengal froze almost in every field following the nationwide 24-hour strike today.

The state virtually remained isolated by road, rail and air from rest of the country as all modes of transport were immobilised denying anybody to leave or arrive.

Claiming that it was ''total and spontaneous'', CITU and AITUC, constituents of NPMO, that gave the strike call, said employees and workers in the state and Central Government offices, banks, insurance companies, factories, coal mines, tea gardens, railways, airports and ports and even in Defence offices took part in it.

''It was a spontaneous strike. All sections of working people participated in it and no force was used,'' he said.

With workers staying away from duty, the work for infrastructure at Singur in Hooghly district remained suspended for the day as Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee continued her hunger strike for the eleventh day sticking to the demand that the Tatas shift their site for the small car project from agricultural land.

However, amid a total standstill, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's dream IT sector stood apart, though with lower attendance of employees than the other days.

But the Chief Minister said functioning in the IT industry was ''more than normal'' as employees participated in work.

Even though CITU did not exempt the sector from the purview of the strike, Mr Bhattacharjee had assured that the Government would make all arrangements to keep work bustling in IT - and it happened so, barring in a few cases.

'' The functioning in IT industry is more than normal, '' he said.

The Chief Minister's statement, however, contradicted the claim of Transport Minister Subhash Chakraborty, who said most of the employees in the sector had joined the strike.

While IT Minister Debesh Das supported Mr Bhattacharjee, saying normal work had been reported from the city's Salt Lake sector five, CITU state president Shyamal Chakraborty also admitted that it was ''apparently normal''.

Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said 25 people had been arrested from different parts of the state on charge attempting forceful closure during today's strike.

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