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Trade union strike hits life in State

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Sept 2 - Trade union bodies today resorted to a strike across the State as part of a nationwide strike called by central trade unions in protest against the Central Government�s �anti-people� policies in general and the new labour and investment laws in particular.

The strike hit the transport, bank and insurance sectors, among others, besides disrupting the people�s normal lives.

The agitators took out big processions across the city�s thoroughfares and also burnt tyres at places, blocking vehicular traffic.

Many protestors were detained by police and later released. At places agitators scuffled with private transport operators like autorickshaws in their bid to stop them from plying.

The All India Trade Union Congress, Assam State Committee, said in a statement that the �strike was hundred per cent in all the districts of Assam... All government offices, PSUs, financial sector offices were closed... More than 3,000 volunteers, including women, have been arrested in different parts of the State. All the leaders of the State AITUC and students and youths have been arrested in various places due to picketing, and some of them are injured and hospitalised,� it said.

Commuters had a tough time in the city, with private bus operators staying off the road. The few buses plied by the ASTC were totally inadequate to meet the demand. Long-distance bus services from the city to other parts of Assam were also disrupted due to the strike call.

Officials in the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) said that train services in the State and other parts of the Northeast operated almost normally barring one or two instances of a few local trains getting delayed.

The agitating trade union bodies alleged that the Centre was hell bent on destroying the hard-earned rights of the working class by amending the Labour Act and that such anti-people policies would strike the working class very hard.

They added that the escalating price rise of foodstuff and other essential commodities � thanks to the laxity of the government and its wrong policies � and unbridled privatisation were also doing great harm to the nation and its people.

The Sadou Asam Karmachari Parishad (SAKP) had extended its moral support to the nationwide stir. It urged the Centre not to take any decision that could undermine the interests of the workers, employees and the common man as a whole.

The Assam Tribune Employees� Union (ATEU) had also extended its moral support to the nationwide strike.

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