India : Bandh likely to affect life in Udupi, Dakshina Kannada districts
Life is likely to be hit in Udupi district on account of the strike call given by the Left-affiliated central trade unions on Friday.
Although the Udupi City Bus Owners
Association is not supporting the strike call, the District City Bus Employees Association is backing it.
Kuilady Suresh Nayak, president of the Udupi City Bus Owners Association and secretary of Canara Bus Operators Association, said that since the city bus employees were supporting the strike, city buses would go off the road on Friday. The same is the case with the inter-district service buses between Udupi and Dakshina Kannada, he said.
Meanwhile, T. Venkatesh, Deputy Commissioner, toldThe Hinduthat no holiday had been declared for schools and colleges in the district. Since government schools were located in rural areas, the students in the villages walked to the schools, hence they were not expected to be affected.
Private schools had their own buses to transport children. If private schools decided to remain open, proper protection would be given to private school buses.
“If business establishments voluntarily responded to the bandh call, there would be no problem. But if anyone tried to forcibly shut down any establishment, stern legal action would be taken against them,” Mr. Venkatesh said.
However, some private schools have already announced a holiday on Friday as they did not want the students to be caught in any untoward incident.
Sources in the Department of Public Instruction said that the bandh call may affect students of some government schools in urban areas of the district as parents would be forced to drop their children to the schools.
Balakrishna Shetty, secretary of the district unit of Communist Party of India (Marxist), said that essential services, including ambulances and milk, will not come under the purview of the bandh.
In Dakshina Kannada
Mangaluru Special Correspondent writes:
The all-India strike called by the joint committee of trade unions, which is likely to turn into a bandh, is likely to affect life in Dakshina Kannada district as all modes of public transport would remain off the road and there is a likelihood of public utilities remaining non-functional.
Private as well as KSRTC buses would remain off the road as their crew have decided to join the strike between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Various autorickshaw drivers and owners unions too have supported the strike call thereby creating vacuum in public transport facilities. Even taxi drivers and owners have supported the strike.
Besides the public transport system, unions and associations representing insurance, telecom, government and others sectors too have extended their support to the strike call.
In a release here, Vasanth Achari from the Joint Committee of Trade Unions in Dakshina Kannada said that various unions, including CITU, AITUC, HMS, INTUC, Union and State government employees associations and farmers associations, are participating in the strike. The strike is against Union government policies that have resulted in price rise, unemployment, increasing capitalist tendencies, and seeking enhancement in minimum wages to Rs. 18,000 a month, social security for workers in the unorganised sector, and scrapping of the Road Safety Bill 2015.
City buses,
inter-district
service buses
to go off the
road today