It’s been a rough ride. A Guide waits at Howrah station on Monday to return home to Rajasthan. She was in town for a six-day jamboree to mark the centenary of the Scout movement. At the Rajarhat camp, the cadets were plagued by water scarcity and poor sanitary conditions. Monday’s bandh delayed their return journey. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Morning did not show the day, as trouble and tension grew with every passing hour during the first bandh of 2007.

Monday began on a quiet note, probably due to the winter chill, but as the temperature rose, so did tempers. By dusk, 373 bandh enforcers had been arrested, nine buses (five CSTC and one CTC) had been damaged, and the troublespot tally criss-crossed Calcutta.

The protest points in the police files were — Kidderpore Road, MG Road, Hyde Road, Palmer Bazar, Amherst Street, Hazra crossing, Gariahat, near Writers’ Buildings, Tea Board, Sandhyabazar (Howrah)...

Bus bashing

Two passengers, the driver and the cleaner were injured in a crude bomb attack on a government bus near Sandhyabazar, on GT Road, Howrah.

A woman, around 55 years old, is undergoing treatment for “a serious head injury” at Howrah General Hospital. Two persons were arrested for the attack, carried out around 10.30 am.

Train trouble

Suburban and long-distance train services from Calcutta were disrupted.

Eastern Railway officials said Rajdhani Express (Howrah) arrived six-and-a-half hours late, while the Sealdah Rajdhani was three-and-a-half hours late.

Santiniketan Express was among the trains cancelled. Local trains in South Eastern Railway came to a stop till 1.30 pm and Eastern Railway services were hit till noon.

Logged in

It was business almost as usual in Sector V. IT biggies like Cognizant, HSBC, Wipro and IBM recorded “above 80 per cent” attendance. “We are quite satisfied with the overall attendance and functioning of Sector V during this bandh,” said S.A. Ahmed, chairman of Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority.

At TCS, however, attendance figures dipped below 50 per cent. “because the bandh was called over the weekend”.

Shop stop

Most shops at City Centre remained closed during the day, as did the entrance to INOX.

The big-format stores at 22 Camac Street remained open, but footfall was no more than a trickle. At Forum, the shutters were down till 5 pm.

Civic slumber

Calcutta Municipal Corporation recorded just 45 per cent attendance, termed “poor even by bandh standards”.