Bhubaneswar, April 26: The BJD’s dawn-to-dusk hartal to protest against the Centre’s apathy towards Odisha paralysed public transport across the state inconveniencing thousands of commuters.
Laxman Senapati, a businessman from Pattamundai, waited in vain at the Master Canteen bus stand for a vehicle to Kendrapara.
“I came from Vishakhapatnam by train this morning. I have to go to Kendrapara but now I realise there are no buses plying because of the strike,” he said.
College student Rajat Choudhary found himself stranded at Cuttack’s Badambadi bus stand.
While buses stayed off roads fearing violence by the strike supporters, trains were stopped by protesters in the morning leaving passengers stranded.
Manmath Moharana, an IT professional, who was supposed to catch a train to Bangalore, looked hassled as he waited at Bhubaneswar railway station for things to normalise. “These strikers are holding up trains. I don’t know whether my train will leave the station at all,” he said.
Though few autorickshaws plied, they fleeced passengers by charging much more than the usual fare. “For the short distance between Vani Vihar and Master Canteen, the autorickshaw driver demanded Rs 50 when the usual fare is Rs 10,” said Sunita Rath, a private-firm employee. Though most schools and colleges were open, classes were empty with students staying away because of the transport problem.
BJD activists blocked roads and highways at several places. While national highways passing through the city were blocked at various places, women activists disrupted traffic at Baramunda, fire station, CRP square, Jayadev Vihar, Acharya Vihar, Vani Vihar, Rasulgarh and Khandagiri areas by burning tyres. In Cuttack, traffic on NH-5 at Sikharpur was affected for nearly 30 minutes due to a road blockade. Around 200 activists were taken into custody in Bhubaneswar.
Trucks also kept off the roads fearing violence. The only vehicles seen on roads were two-wheelers which, by and large, moved freely. While business establishments in the city downed shutters, BJD activists were seem picketing in front of central government offices.
Though attendance in most other offices was thin, it was around 90 per cent at the state secretariat where the gates were closed at 10.15am.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik reached the secretariat around 11.15am and presided over the review meeting of a water supply project in Berhampur. Though most ministers skipped official work, housing and urban development minister Debi Prasad Mishra and panchayati raj minister Kalpataru Das were present at the secretariat.
The chief minister did not forget to pay homage to the freedom fighter, Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajpati, whose birth anniversary coincided with the hartal.
Taking the sting out of the Opposition’s attack against his for having called a strike on the day, Naveen garlanded the statues of the Maharaja at the Assembly and AG Square this morning.
