Malda, Aug. 6: A dispute over sacking temporary municipal workers has led to a three-day bandh in Malda town, unusual even in shutdown-happy Bengal.

The trigger was a government order to the Opposition-controlled Englishbazar municipality — the Congress, Trinamul Congress and the BJP run the show together — to sack 450 casual workers over allegations that they were employed illegally.

The administration was caught unawares when supporters of Intuc, the Congress’s labour wing, took to the streets this morning — the first of the three-day shutdown.

The mob ransacked the head post office and banks.

The Intuc did not put up roadblocks, but there was no respite for commuters. Another 72-hour strike called by a commercial vehicle owners’ forum, demanding withdrawal of motorised van-rickshaws, also began today.

Two government buses were attacked and tyres of vehicles deflated. Shops and other commercial establishments were shut. The office of the Congress-controlled zilla parishad was not spared either — pointing to a deep divide in the party ranks.

Malda superintendent of police Dilip Mondal said Congress leader and zilla parishad sabhadhipati Gautam Chakraborty had told the district magistrate over the phone last night that the bandh had been called off.

Chakraborty admitted telling collector Chittaranjan Das that the strike was off. “I’m embarrassed and shocked. Intuc district president Biswanath Ghosh announced the withdrawal yesterday in the presence of Union minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and district Congress chief Rubi Noor.”

Chakraborty said he was “stunned” at the way his zilla parishad office was vandalised. He claimed that even the chairman of the Englishbazar municipality, Narendranath Tiwari (a Congress leader), had to return after protesters locked the gates.

Ghosh, however, claimed the bandh had never been withdrawn. “We shall continue our movement till the order to sack workers is withdrawn.”