Ranchi, June 9: The BJP has curtailed its programme of observing a daylong Jharkhand bandh tomorrow to mark its protest against petroleum price hike.
However, the CPM will observe a daylong bandh, as was announced.
According to a statement issued by BJP spokesperson Biranchi Narayan this evening, the party will observe a three-hour bandh from 8am to 11am tomorrow.
Earlier, the party had decided to observe a full-day bandh.
Narayan said the change in stance was taken keeping public interest in mind. “We have reduced the length of the bandh. The party does not want to organise any programme as public will suffer,” the release stated.
But the CPM said they will observer the bandh to protest the hike in fuel prices from dawn to dusk tomorrow.
“We have not made any change except changing the date of observing bandh. Instead of observing the bandh on May 11, we had decided to observe the bandh tomorrow. Our bandh will start at 6am and continue till 6pm,” said party secretary J.S. Majumdar.
The party functionary has appealed to the people to make tomorrow’s general strike in Jharkhand successful.
“People should support our bandh as increase of prices of petroleum products causes an increase in the prices of essential commodities,” he said.
As CPM cadre get ready for the bandh, police have started taking steps to ensure that there are no untoward incidents tomorrow.
“We have taken preventive measures and instructed our officers to be vigilant during bandh,” said Ranchi senior superintendent of police M.S. Bhatia.
Political parties started making plans for a bandh following the hike in prices of petroleum products.
While CPI-ML (Liberation) observed a bandh last Saturday, the CPM had decided to observed bandh on Wednesday. The BJP then announced that they would observe a bandh on Tuesday. The CPM then decided to shift its bandh to Tuesday so that people would not have to suffer two days of strikes.
Apart from this, political parties have burnt effigies of Union ministers to protest the hike in petroleum products.
Keeping tomorrow’s bandh in mind, residents of the capital today thronged the roads to finish their work soon and stock up on food and other essential goods.
