Shutdown affects life, coal transport in Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR - Life in Chhattisgarh came to a virtual standstill Monday during a daylong shutdown called by the state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against the central government’s decision to increase fuel prices. Coal transportation was also hit by the stir.

Cadres of the ruling BJP, which along with other opposition parties has called the strike, enforced the shutdown from early hours in all 18 districts.

Shops remained shut, buses were off the road while educational institutions, petrol pumps and cinema halls were closed throughout the state.

While violence has not reported from any where of the state but protesters squatted on the tracks on the Howrah-Mumbai rail route at Raigarh, Bilaspur and Rajnandgaon.

The strike was a total success even in urban areas of the 40,000 sq km Bastar region, a Maoist stronghold.

The strike also affected coal transportation in state’s northern region where Coal India Limited’s highest profit-making subsidiary, South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) has dozens of mines, mainly in Korba, Surguja, Koriya and Bilaspur districts.

“Coal mining has been hit by some 20 percent in several mines because of low turnout of miners but transportation has been severely hit,” a senior SECL official who wanted his name be withheld, told IANS.