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Bandh call evokes partial response in Puducherry

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

time for a nap: Shops on Jawaharlal Nehru Street in Puducherry downed their shutters on Friday.

PUDUCHERRY: The dawn-to-dusk bandh called by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to protest against the rise in the price of essential commodities evoked a partial response in Puducherry on Friday.

Barring sporadic incidents of stone-throwing, the bandh went off peacefully. The windshield of a bus belonging to the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) was damaged in stone-throwing at Sultanpet on the outskirts of the town. The bus was heading for Villupuram from Puducherry.

Activists of the BJP including the Puducherry unit president M.Visveswaran and National council member of the party Swaminathan were arrested while trying to take out processions in violation of prohibitory orders in different parts of the town.

Private buses and share autos were off the road. However, the TNSTC and the Puducherry Road Transport Corporation operated their fleet. Train service was not disrupted, Railway sources said.

Most of the shops along the arterial Anna Salai, Jawaharlal Nehru Street, Mahatma Gandhi Road and Goubert Market downed their shutters during the bandh period. Even hawkers along the main thoroughfares suspended their work. Cinema houses cancelled the shows and some of the petrol bunks did not function. Attendance in Central and UT government offices and banks was normal.

The BJP leaders described the bandh as a total success.

This was the second bandh held in Puducherry in five days. Only on April 28, the town experienced a 12-hour bandh called by the agitating workers of the Anglo-French Textile Mills to highlight their demands including Central Dearness Allowance.

The bandh did not evoke any response from the people of Cuddalore and Villupuram districts.

The shops and commercial establishments in both the districts functioned as usual and so also the transport services. The educational institutions, cinema houses and industries too functioned normally.

The party posters on the bandh were pasted at prominent places, but none of the cadres or leaders came out in the open in support of the bandh.

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