Workers play cards at Asansol. (Sitaram Mukherjee)

Calcutta, Dec. 14: An assistant general manager of Durgapur Steel Plant was thrashed for daring to go to work and maids were dragged out of homes as Citu forced a bandh on Bengal.

S.P. Badyakar was stopped around 10 last night when he was on his way to work on his scooter. He had planned to stay at the plant overnight.

Citu activists ordered him to go back. When Badyakar said he was a senior executive and wanted to work, the men beat him up. One of his teeth fell out and he slumped to the ground, bleeding. Badyakar was taken to hospital by collegues and had to undergo a minor surgery on his gums.

The general secretary of the Citu-affiliated union, P.K. Das, said: “We are ashamed.”

But this was not the only time Citu used violence.

At Kalyani town in Nadia, residents were warned on loudspeakers against letting part-time maids work and all approach roads were blocked. If this was not enough, women activists searched houses for maids and dragged them out.

Again, the Citu was apologetic. Sumit Dey, the Nadia secretariat member, said: “What they did was wrong.”

In Birbhum district, police had to walk 11 undertrials to court after Citu men refused to allow their van to pass.

Home secretary Prasad Ranjan Ray said: “All over the state the attendance rate, except for the IT sector, has been less than one per cent.”