Where Buddhadeb wants to tread,Left unions walk the opposite

Kolkata, Dec 14 (UNI) Walking opposite the reformist Chief Minister wants to tread, Left Trade Unions today crippled life in West Bengal striking discord to the capital-friendly tune Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee sounded to investors.

In what is being viewed as a face-off between governance and trade unionism, most of the Trade Unions, including CITU and AITUC, made the 24-hour strike total, not exempting even the IT sector and stalling work for the Tata Motors' small car project at Singur.

Remaining somewhat alive in a frozen state where every single sector went paralysed, the city's IT hub in Salt Lake sector five reported a lower attendance despite the Chief Minister's assurance to keep the 24x7 industry uninterrupted.

The CITU had earlier made it clear that it would not keep the IT sector out of the purview of the strike on the ground it being not listed as essential service area, though asserting that no force would be used to prevent employees from attending duty.

Giving out varying statistics, IT Minister Debesh Das said the attendance in IT industry was between 60 and 80 per cent, while Home Secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said it was 90 per cent. While the Chief Minister said functioning in IT was 'more than normal', his ministerial colleague Subhash Chakraborty claimed the industry to have been largely affected.

According to industry sources, global IT leader Wipro recorded about 90 per cent attendance while the presence of employees in other organisations in this sunshine industry ranged between 30 and 60 per cent in the state's IT sector where CITU-backed IT Employees Association was formed last month.

IBM, the world's biggest hardware IT company, kept its shutters down in Kolkata on its own to avoid 'functional difficulties' and asked the employees to compensate for the loss of mandays on their off days.

Known for having a running tiff with the Chief Minister, Transport Minister Mr.Chakraborty,also an important leader of CITU, had earlier declared that no Government vehicles would roll out on the strike day.

As a result, Barring the Chief Minister and Mr Chakraborty himself, no other Minister could come to the state Secretariat because of the Government drivers joining the strike.

The strike immobilised vehicles, trains, aeroplanes, launches and boats isolating the state from rest of the country, while no work was reported in government and private offices, factories, coal mines, ports and even in defence offices.

Shops and markets, educational institutions and commercial establishments also remained closed.

Metro Railway, which ferried only 91 passengers Thursday, also stopped after CITU men beat up a motorman.

CITU men activists allegedly stopped deflated tyres of vehicles that came on the road, stopped auto rickshaws, obstructed railway tracks and the metro rail movement in several places in repeat action that the state witnessed during the statewide bandhs on December one and five, called respectively by the Trinamool Congress and the SUCI-Naxal cobmine in protest against acquisition of farm land at Singur in Hooghly district.

However, while determined to go ahead with the small car project despite opposition uproar, the Government had made all arrangements to keep the life going and it was largely successful.

But in what may be described as an irony, the project was one among many to have taken the toll of the strike as the work for infrastructure in the site was halted today with the workers staying away from duty.

Local CPI (M) leadership said the agricultural workers, who were engaged in erecting electricity poles in the area, were not supposed to work as the the 16-point charter of demands placed by NPMO, that called the strike, included theirs also.

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