Thiruvananthapuram/New Delhi/Mumbai/Bhopal/Patna, May 24: The entire state of Kerala today observed a 12-hour dawn-to-dusk shutdown following a call given by the Left Democratic Front to protest the steepest petrol price hike in recent history.
Kerala CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan claimed that the bandh was a total success throughout the state.
The bandh was total in Ernakulam and Kottayam districts. Shops and business establishments were shut and private and KSRTC buses were off the roads. PSUs reported thin attendance.
Cargo handling operations inside Kochi port were not affected, port sources said. Over 60 per cent attendance was reported in Kochi port today.
Vehicles of IT employees going to Infopark at nearby Kakkanad were blocked in some places.
Schools and colleges remained closed and Mahatma Gandhi university cancelled its examinations scheduled in the state today due to the bandh. The bandh call crippled normal life in Malabar region.
The strike was near total in Kozhikode city with private vehicles including buses, trucks and autorickshaw off the roads. In Kasargod district, state transport buses did not ply.
Buses from neighbouring Mangalore in Karnataka to the district also did not operate their services, police said. However, some small business establishments remained open. State transport buses also remained off the road.
Last night the BJP, AIYF and DYFI had taken out protest rallies in the region against the petrol price hike.
BJP activists staged protests in several cities of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance has given a Bharat Bandh call for May 31.
NDA convenor and JDU President Sharad Yadav said that all the partners of the opposition alliance have been consulted in this regard.
The alliance will also be talking to other parties for their support to the Bharat bandh.
Rejecting Government's argument that the hike in petrol prices has been done by petroleum companies as the pricing of petrol stands deregulated, Yadav said, “This is an eyewash... We (NDA) are going to observe a Bharat bandh on May 31.”
He asked why the hike in petrol prices was not announced when Parliament was in session and why oil companies did so the very next day after the session got over.
“Government has washed his hands off the decision on price hike but in reality it happens only when the Government wants. The Government will also be increasing prices of diesel and LPG after the Presidential elections get over,” Yadav said.
The JD(U) chief accused the Government of being a “total failure” in checking prices of essential commodities.
“Common people are suffering due to wrong policies of the UPA Government. Prices of commodities are rising uncontrollably making it difficult for an average Indian to make both ends meet,” he said.
This Government is pro-rich and not bothered about the poor, he charged.
Vijayawada : Opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh including Telugu Desam, CPM and CPI and BJP staged protests in Vijayawada city and Krishna district against thegovernment's decision on petrol price hike.
The TDP, BJP and CPM leaders in the city staged ‘rasta roko' at different places and demanded to roll back the hike.
The petrol price hike will definitely have an impact on the bypolls in the state and the people will teach a lesson to Congress in the bypolls, to be held for 18 Assembly and one Lok Sabha seat on June 12, the protesting leaders said.
Meanwhile, police arrested workers of all political parties who staged ‘rasta roko'.
Chennai : Left parties today staged protests here against yesterday's hike in petrol price.
CPI state secretary D Pandian led a protest at Saidapet here while the CPI (M)-affiliated youth organisation DYFI staged a protest outside Indian Oil Bhavan here.
Around 25 DYFI activists were detained as they did not have permission to stage protest, police said.
Meanwhile, CPI announced staging state-wide agitation on May 26 condemning the hike in petrol prices and demanding its immediate rollback, Pandian said.
Reports of protests against petrol price hike have come in from several parts of Delhi, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Nagpur, Bhopal, Amritsar, Kanpur, Sangli, Shirdi and Meerut.
