Cuttack, Aug. 3: Life was affected here today because of a 12-hour strike called by the Cuttack Banchao Andolan in protest against Cuttack not being ranked higher in the list of five cities recommended for the smart city tag.
Nearly 20 non-political organisations supported the shutdown.
The activists staged roadblocks resulting in traffic disruption on the NH-5 for over an hour. All markets, shops, business establishments, educational institutions and banks remained closed in the city.
However, the high court and lower courts in city functioned as usual.
Fearing vandalism, most private buses and autorickshaws stayed off roads till late in the afternoon.
"We have deployed around 12 platoons of police. By and large, the bandh was peaceful, and no untoward incident has been reported," said deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora.
The absence of public transport during the first half of the day created inconvenience for commuters. "We reached Cuttack from Koraput around 8.30am and found not a single bus plying from the Badambadi bus terminal. With no other option, we had to wait at the bus depot for over four hours," said Sidhart Rout, a commuter.
Cuttack Banchao Andolan convener Subrat Lenka claimed that the residents of the city had voluntarily supported the strike.
Earlier, the state government had nominated five cities for inclusion in a list of 100 from across the country in the Smart City project. Bhubaneswar and Rourkela were leading the race in Odisha after scoring highest points with 70 and 61.8 per cent, respectively. However, Cuttack, along with Berhampur and Sambalpur, were awarded 60 per cent each, and the three are sure to be left out because only two cities from the state will be included in the project.
"According to the city challenge guideline prepared by the Union ministry of urban development, Bhubaneswar and Roukela secured the first two positions. We are protesting against the awarding of poor marks to Cuttack, which has been placed after Rourkela," said Lenka, alleging that the strike had been called to protest against the conspiracy of the state government to neglect the legitimate right of Cuttack, which is the oldest and second largest city in the state.
The Aam Admi Party (AAP) had also called for a peaceful hartal against the non-inclusion of Cuttack in the Smart City project.
"The state government has neglected Cuttack as no considerable effort has been made for the development of infrastructure here as compared to Bhubaneswar," said AAP state convener Dhanada Mishra.
