Jan. 12: The CPM has taken care to spare from a bandh pockets of South 24-Parganas that are part of Calcutta but EM Bypass could be crippled south of Ruby, affecting life on a stretch with new schools, hospitals and highrises.

According to the party, the 6am-to-6pm strike will cover the fringes of Jadavpur and Regent Park, and Sonarpur, Garia, Baruipur, Joynagar, Kultali, Diamond Harbour, Basanti, Gosaba, Patharpratima, Canning and Mandirbazar.

Behala, Thakurpukur and most of Jadavpur and Regent Park have been kept out of the bandh — called to protest the killing of four CPM supporters in South 24-Parganas’ Canning yesterday — because they are controlled by the party’s Calcutta committee and not the South 24-Parganas unit.

Diamond Harbour Road and the entire Kakdwip subdivision have been exempted so that Ganga Sagar pilgrims are not inconvenienced. The spe- cial trains for the pilgrims fr-om Sealdah will also not be bl-ocked, promised district CPM secretary Sujan Chakraborty.

EM Bypass has been exempted up to the Ruby crossing from the north, but that may not be enough for a burgeoning section of Calcutta.

The Heritage School and Delhi Public School Ruby Park have been forced to declare a holiday on Wednesday.

Government schools in the region are unlikely to work anyway because the party’s student and teacher wings support the shutdown.

“It’s very sad that we had to close the school because we have our Class X and XII pre-boards on. But our transporters said they would not be able to ply buses,” said Heritage principal Seema Sapru.

Around 200 employees stayed back at Peerless Hospital tonight to ensure normal operations. “We are keeping all our departments open and will also discharge patients tomorrow. We hope senior doctors will be able to reach safely,” said medical superintendent Sudipto Mitra. The Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences is organising pick-up for primary-care providers.

In large parts of south Calcutta, which depends on the fringe areas for domestic hands, the worry centred everyday chores. “My help and the ayah who tends to my ailing father told me they wouldn’t come. It was a bolt from the blue,” said a Hiland Park resident.

Operators said they would take a call tomorrow on whether to ply buses. “We generally don’t take the risk of operating on a bandh day. We will take a decision tomorrow,” said Trinamul Congress MLA and Bengal Bus Syndicate president Swarnakamal Saha.

The Trinamul-dominated Progressive Taximen’s Union, which controls a sizeable chunk of the 35,000 taxis in the city, said it would run cabs.

Transport minister Ranjit Kundu, too, promised normal traffic, but added a qualifier that his predecessor, the late Subhas Chakraborty, had frequently used. “I’m helpless if the buses and taxis can’t ply.”

CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty dubbed yesterday’s killings by alleged Trinamul supporters a “massacre”.

He admitted the possibility of confusion over the areas that would be covered by the bandh. “We have asked our local leaders to sit and decide tonight (where to enforce the bandh),” he said.

Nine alleged Trinamul supporters have been arrested in connection with the killings.

The party said those killed were farmers “whose only fault was supporting the CPM”.

Many, like ad firm executive Anurag Hira, who lives at Udita in Santoshpur, said: “In a civilised society, there should be a more constructive way to protest.”