Trinamool's bandh halts life, duration shortened

Kolkata, Jun 06 (UNI) Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today announced to call off the 12-hour statewide bandh one-and-a-half hours ahead of schedule as life remained paralysed for the second successive day on the oil price issue.

''We are withdrawing the bandh at 1630 hrs considering the people's inconvenience. The purpose of the bandh is already served as we have got the people's support,'' she told newspersons.

For the second day in a row, the bandh disrupted rail and road communication and forced shutdown in most of the shops and markets while very few vehicles rolled out on the street.

Yesterday, the state had witnessed a dawn-to-dusk strike, called by the ruling Left Front on the same issue.

Today's bandh was called jointly by the Trinamool Congress and its ally Socialist Unity Centre (SUCI). The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also gave a separate bandh call.

Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia said barring a few minor incidents, the bandh was peaceful.

According to official reports, at least eight people were injured in a clash between supporters of the CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress at Mahishadal in Bankura district.

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