Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Chandy condemns attempt to spread strike to Technopark

Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition leader Oommen Chandy on Wednesday criticised the Left parties’ attempts to spread their “general strike-turned bandh” to the information technology sector and warned the State government of the serious implications it would have on industrial investment.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Chandy said attempts were made to bring the Technopark within the ambit of hartals and bandhs. For the first time since its inception, demonstrations were held in front of the Technopark gates. The employees had to enter through other gates. The police, instead of providing protection, worked hand in glove with the agitators. The Kazhakkuttom police had directed the Technopark authorities to inform all companies to stop work by 10 p.m. on Tuesday night, he said.

Mr. Chandy wanted to know whether the State government had issued such a direction and if not, he wanted action to the taken against the police official concerned. “The government is talking tall about Rs.25,000-crore investment in three years. If such activities are encouraged, that too with government patronage, it will frighten away prospective investors,” he said.

Listing various incidents that took place across the State on Wednesday, Mr. Chandy said that the common factor in all these was police inaction.

Trains were blocked, offices were forcibly shut and employees who turned up for work were assaulted. The police did not try to remove the agitators who blocked railway lines. The Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad Railway Divisions had to cancel 22 trains on account of this, he said.

Never before had petrol pumps run by the Civil Supplies Corporation downed shutters during hartals and bandhs, but on Wednesday it happened. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala said the police inaction in preventing untoward incidents exposed the government’s stand on the agitation.

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