Twin strikes cripple Malda

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Aug 6: While two separate strikes called by two different organisations crippled life in Malda today, chaos ruled after Intuc supporters ransacked the office of an Allahabad Bank branch and the Malda zilla parishad office, forcing the employees to participate in the strike called by the organisation. The 72-hour transport strike from today called by the Malda Commercial Vehicles’ Forum subjected the daily commuters to severe inconvenience across the district as all passenger carriers were off the roads. A 12-hour strike convened by the Malda Intuc in protest against the government decision to sack 450 casual workers from the English Bazaar Municipality, kept the shutters down in most business establishments today. The transporters called the strike in protest against apparent inaction of the administration in banning thousands of motorised three wheelers that ply across the district without certification from the authorities and registration from the regional transport department. The police have arrested two Intuc supporters on charges of ransacking government offices and other establishments. “We are in search of five more Intuc supporters in connection with the offense. They had fled before police reached the spot,” said the inspector in-charge of English Bazaar police station. The police are planning night raids in search of the culprits. The Congress here is divided on the Intuc action. It may be noted that the vice chairman of the English Bazaar Municipality Mr Biswanath Guho, who is also the district president of the Intuc Malda unit, had convened the strike, which was opposed by the non Left councillors belonging to the camp of Mr Krishnendu Narayan Choudhury, Congress MLA from English Bazaar. The EBM chief, Mr Narendranath Tiwari today sacked 58 casual workers engaged in his tenure in keeping with a government order on the subject and also to ensure continued aid to the civic board. Mr Tiwari said he would disengage all causal workers phase wise.It is learnt that another 172 casual workers would be retrenched tomorrow.