Life was nearly normal on the second day of the two-day bandh called by the trade unions.
Life was nearly normal on the second day of the two-day bandh called by the trade unions.
Public transport vehicles and autorickshaws began plying right from early in the morning. In addition, all the long distance buses and trains from other parts of the three southern states also started arriving in the cities like Mangalore and Mysore.
Trade union leaders admitted that the two-day bandh was call over optimistic, but insisted that it was needed to “wake up the central government from its slumber” in the midst of a middle class and lower class crisis over food prices.
“In the past, we have had 14 one-day strikes over issues like the price rise, liberalisation, privatisation and globalization and FDI in retail, but the central government turned a blind eye to all the people’s agitation, we should understand they are fighting for their food security and their share of social security and social justice through right to live, but the government had been adamant on its policies to bring in FDI in retail and many other polices built on top down models, we in the trade unions wanted to give the central government wakeup call with the two day bandh,” B Madhava, former president of the state unit of Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU), told DNA.
What was more agonising for the trade union leaders in the entire episode of their fight against FDI in retail and price rise was that both major trade unions of the parties like BJP and Congress were mum about the price rise. Dr Sanjiva Reddy, a Rajya Sabha MP and national president of the Congress trade union INTUC, had not even chided the government about the price rise despite being the largest trade union in the country, Madhava said Whether the two-day bandh was able to wake up the government or not, the common people who participated in the bandh did wake up to their new personal financial losses.
Road transport and marine transport sectors suffered the most.
“A one-day stoppage of our buses would mean a loss of `3,000 per day per vehicle of the stage carriage size. The loss included bank charges, road tax and salaries, but our losses are further compounded as the buses will be idle even after paying all these cost inputs, if the bus did not run for one day, the income loss would be to the tune of `2,000-2,500 which brings up the total loss to `5,500 per day. But even after the two-day bandh, has this message reached the central government?” asked president of the State Bus Owner’s Federation Rajavarma Ballal.
Many bus owners had cut the salaries of the crew of the buses for two days. Also losing the earnings for the two days were autorickshaw drivers.
“These are daily wage earners. Who will compensate their losses? Their loss was larger than that of any of us, as their need for wages was more, who could alleviate the hardships they went through in the last two days of bandh?” asked Ballal.
@mraghuram12
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