India hit badly by striking workers

Thursday was a day of chaos in India as thousands of workers across the country observed one-day strike in protest against government's economic reforms.

The nation-wide strike call was given by communists-backed trade unions and federations in the country. Interestingly, four of the major communist parties of India are lending outside support to the 16-month old Congress-led coalition government in New Delhi.

Eastern Indian state of West Bengal, where communists are in ruling for the past 28 years was the worst hit region as no flight could either take off or arrive at capital city Kolkata's Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose international airport, though an Indian Airlines flight from Delhi arrived at the airport at 10:15 a.m. ( local time), news agency Indo-Asian News Service reported Thursday.

Air passengers found themselves stranded in several places, schools were shut and financial services hit during the Thursday strike.

A daylong strike by some 20,000 workers of the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI), which manages 124 airports in the country, badly affected domestic and international aviation services in Asia's third largest economy as left-backed trade unions agitated.

Flights were disrupted in places like Mumbai, Delhi and the northeast as airport workers protested the privatization of Delhi and Mumbai airports.

"The strike is a complete success," Nitin Jadhav, joint secretary of the Airports Authority of India Employees Union, said in Mumbai.

"Despite the government's attempt to seek outside help to maintain normal operations, all services have been badly affected, " IANS quoted Jadhav as saying.

Long queues of passengers were seen at the domestic airport of the country's financial capital to cancel their tickets.

Private carriers including Jet Airways, Air Sahara and Indian Airlines canceled many of their flight services to several destinations.

Financial services across the country were hit as nearly one million public sector bank employees went on a nation-wide strike to protest the proposals to privatize state-run banks.

The strike crippled all banking transactions, including clearance of cheques across the country.

"The response to the strike is better than what we had expected. We have got very encouraging reports from all over the country," Peter Fernandez, secretary of the All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC), said in Mumbai.

Eight other bank employees' unions, including All India Bank Employees' Association, National Confederation of Bank Employees, and Bank Employees' Federation of India supported the strike call.

Though most parts of the country remained peaceful, there were reports of violence from New Delhi's industrial suburb of Gurgaon where workers' unions tried to force closure of factories.

Activists of various unions clashed with the police at several places in the industrial town. Windowpanes of industrial units were smashed at several places.

Some reports suggested that nearly 200,000 workers could not reach their workplaces in the morning as striking unions had blocked roads.

Source: Xinhua