Transport hit, commercial establishments closed in Guwahati

Few private buses and cars plied on the roads, most commercial establishments remained closed and train movements took some hit in Guwahati during the 24-hour nationwide general strike called by central trade unions on Wednesday.

There were, however, no reports of any disturbances, Guwahati's Joint Commissioner of Police Debraj Upadhyay told IANS.

"We have not received any reports of disturbances. Situation was totally peaceful," he said.

According to the officer, vehicular volume on the streets of the capital was less than on other working days. "There were some private vehicles on the roads. But the volume of vehicular traffic was less."

With city private buses largely keeping off the roads, the commuters had trouble in commuting to and from office, though the Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) operated its full fleet of buses.

A large section of shops and majority of commercial establishments did not roll up their shutters, while majority of private schools here declared a holiday.

With strike supporters squatting on the railway tracks to disrupt train movement in 10-12 stations, services were hit, but there was no major impact.

"There was picketing in 10-12 stations, spread over almost all the divisions. But the obstructions lasted for half an hour to an hour. As such there was no major disruption. A few trains were delayed by 30-60 minutes," Northeast Frontier Railway Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) Subhanan Chanda told IANS.

Ten central trade unions had called the general strike pressing for a 12-point charter of demands including stoppage of disinvestment in Central/State public sector units.

They have also demanded scrapping of the National Population Register initiative, a proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens exercise and the Citizenship Amendment Act, and sought urgent measures for containing price-rise through universalisation of public distribution system, containing unemployment, strict enforcement of all basic labour laws, stoppage of FDI in Railways, Insurance and Defence and withdrawal of the Land Acquisition amendment bill/ordinance.IANS