Nationwide strike sees limited impact

The nationwide strike, called by several trade unions to protest against labour policies of the Centre, caused some disruptions in some states on Wednesday but failed to leave an impact on normal life in most parts of the country.

- MPOST BUREAU

However, the trade unions claimed that the strike was successful, and a large number of workers abstained from work, impacting the postal, banking, insurance, and mining sectors.

Although the agitation remained by and large peaceful, reports of violence were received from pockets of West Bengal after Left-wing activists clashed with police and TMC supporters in various districts.

In a statement, a forum of 10 trade unions said there was a bandh-like situation in many areas of the country, like Puducherry, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Kerala, West Bengal, Odisha, Karnataka, Goa, Meghalaya, and Manipur etc. Reports of partial bandhs were also received in many segments of Rajasthan, Haryana, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, among others.

There were industrial and sectoral strikes held in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Gujarat, it added.

They have called the one-day strike in support of their demand for doing away with four labour codes, contractualisation, privatisation of PSUs, increasing minimum wages to Rs 26,000 per month, as well as the demands of farmer organisations for minimum support price for crops based on Swaminathan commission's formula of C2 plus 50 per cent, and loan waiver for farmers. The forum had last year submitted a 17-point demand to Labour Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

The government has not been conducting the annual labour conference for the last 10 years, the forum claimed.