Shutdown disrupts life in Uttar Pradesh (Second Lead)

LUCKNOW - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party activists Monday took to the streets, stopped trains and clashed with the police in Uttar Pradesh to enforce an all-India shutdown against rising prices of food and other essential commodities and the hike in fuel prices.

BJP leaders, including Arun Jaitley, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Lalji Tandon joined hundreds of party activists here in courting arrest.

Akhilesh Yadav, son of Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, also courted arrest with senior party leaders.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Brij Lal, however, claimed the shutdown was peaceful and no major untoward incident was reported from any part of the state.

While the Samajwadi Party claimed around 1,000 of its party workers were detained during the protest from Lucknow alone, the BJP claimed that over 2,000 workers were detained in Lucknow.

“The arrest is in protest against the wrong economic policies of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government …the policies are a burden on poor people,” Jaitley told reporters here.

Police used batons and water cannons when opposition workers forced their way through barriers along the Vikramaditya Marg and the Vidhan Sabha Marg.

Though police claimed no one was seriously injured, the activists alleged a number of their colleagues were admitted in different hospitals.

“We had just stepped outside of our party office when police started assaulting us unnecessarily… we were not carrying out any violent demonstration,” Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Yadav told reporters.

The BJP and the Samajwadi Party workers disrupted rail routes and stopped several trains in Allahabad, Varanasi, Jaunpur, Ferozabad, Etawah and Chandauli districts.

Agitators forced the closure of commercial establishments, shops and other outlets in Meerut, Gorakhpur and others districts.

Some of the trains stopped include the Lucknow-bound Shatabdi Express, the Ganga-Gomti Express, the Agra-Kanpur Passenger, the Bhatni Passenger and the Allahabad Passenger.

“We have rounded up six Samajwadi Party workers near Phaphamau railway station for disrupting rail traffic stopping the Ganga-Gomti Express train,” Additional Superintendent of Police S.S. Bhaghel said in Allahabad, about 200 km from Lucknow.

Road traffic was blocked in several districts, including Agra, where Samajwadi activists damaged a number of buses and other vehicles plying on the roads.

Last month, the central government ended curbs on petroleum pricing and hiked the prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas. The price of diesel went up by Rs.2 a litre, kerosene by Rs.3 a litre, petrol by Rs.3.50 a litre, and cooking gas by Rs.35 per cylinder.