Bhubaneswar, Aug. 16: Harish Sahu, 36, a management executive, who landed here from Bangalore this morning, was shocked when he stepped out of the airport - there was no taxi to take him home.
All taxis, autorickshaws and public and private transports were off the road due to the dawn-to-dusk bandh called by the Congress to protest against the construction of dams in the upstream of Mahanadi in Chhattisgarh. Only some two-wheelers could be seen plying on the deserted streets of the capital city throughout the day.
"There were no cabs or any other public transport. The city buses were also not available. A motorcyclist offered to drop me at my residence for Rs 500," said Sahu.
Passengers at the airport and the railway station had to go through harrowing experience in the absence of public transport. Those who were trying to reach the airport or the railway station had an equally tough time.
"My nephew was to board a flight to Hyderabad this morning. We started from home at 7am to catch the 10.15am flight. Congress protesters blocked Master Canteen Square and did not allow us to move an inch. As a result, my nephew missed the flight," said Ratikanta Panda, a resident of Patia.
Twenty-seven-year-old Bijayananda Debata, failed to reach Bhubaneswar railway station on time to board the Bhubaneswar-Balangir Intercity Express at 6.35 this morning. He was going home to meet his expecting wife.
Passengers boarding the Rajdhani and Coromandel Express also had to wait for long, as protesters halted trains at the Bhubaneswar railway station. "The Rajdhani was delayed by nearly half an hour. I reached the station as early as 5am and waited till 9.40am to board the train," said Swetalina Dwivedy, a passenger.
As early as 5.30am, the protesters arrived at Bhubaneswar railway station to block movement of trains. They left after 30minutes but by then, all the trains were running late and public transports outside the railway station had stopped plying.
All educational institutions, banks and private offices were also closed in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. The Congress workers went around the twin cities since early morning, forcefully ensured that the establishments remained closed.
The Congress workers made rounds of the city since morning and blocked traffic at prominent places, such as Vani Vihar, Jayadev Vihar and Nayapalli. Traffic on the Calcutta-Chennai national highway also had to bear the brunt of the strike.
Though Congress workers claimed that they did not affect the movement of patients in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, those rushing their kin to hospitals faced innumerable difficulty on the way. Very few patients could turn up at Capital Hospital for treatment. Soumyaranjan, 36, a resident of Keonjhar, said: "I had come to Bhubaneswar to visit my uncle who is undergoing treatment for a fractured leg. But, I could not find an auto-rickshaw to reach the hospital."
In Cuttack, outdoor patient attendance was thin at both SCB Medical College and Hospital and Sishu Bhavan.
Litigants also suffered with the lawyers of the high court and lower courts staying away from work.
High Court Bar Association secretary B.K. Ragada said: "The Chief Justice was especially informed and was urged that no adverse orders be passed in case of absence of lawyers. Our absence should not be construed as support for any bandh."
Police had made elaborate security arrangements for the bandh in Bhubaneswar. Thirty platoons of police personnel were deployed across the city to maintain law and order. Deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi said that around 300 protesters were arrested during the bandh. "No untoward incident took place during the bandh," he said.
Additional reporting by Sandeep Mishra, Sandeep Dwivedy and Lelin Mallick in Bhubaneswar and Lalmohan Patnaik and Vikash Sharma in Cuttack
