Bharat Bandh: Big trouble confronts students, office-goers

Bangalore, Feb 19: The two-day nation-wide strike called by various trade unions is a bad news for office-goers and school going students. Office-goers and school students are clueless as how would they commute if buses and auto-rickshaws will remain off the roads.

Buses and auto-rickshaws form the life lines of most of Indian cities, except for Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai where metros and trains take care of daily passengers.

But for cities like Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad--the Bharat Bandh brings lot of woes to them. Most of the schools are yet to declare holidays for the two-days. However, a school principal in Bangalore said that if talks between government and trade unions fail then they would be forced to declare holidays on the strike days.

For office-goers, their problems have been aggravated as many state governments have asked their workers to work on bandh days. Failure of attendance will lead to loss of pay.

"I don't know what to do. I am confused. I am a single woman and I have no vehicle of my own. I depend on buses and auto-rickshaws to travel to my office daily. My office has asked me to attend work without failure," lamented Kakoli Dastidar, a Kolkata government employee.

Some of the trade unions, who are participating in the strike, are - Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) and many others.

The Bandh has been called against privatisation, outsourcing, violation of labour laws, and price rise.

OneIndia News