The Ajoynagar crossing on EM Bypass wears a deserted look during the CPM-sponsored bandh. Picture by Sanath Kumar Sinha

Calcutta, Aug. 28: Shops, malls and other business establishments remained closed and public transport mostly kept off the streets as CPM supporters today enforced a bandh in Kasba, Jadavpur, Bagha Jatin and parts of Garia.

CPM supporters set up barricades at the entry point to Patuli from EM Bypass and the intersection of Raja S.C. Mullick Road and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Road at Garia on the city’s southern fringes.

Policemen on duty at the intersection made no efforts to remove the barricades.

Today’s 12-hour bandh was called by the CPM in pockets of south Calcutta, including Kasba, Jadavpur, Bagha Jatin and parts of Garia, after a clash with the Trinamul Congress yesterday over the election of the chairpersons of two boroughs.

“I was shocked to see the policemen at Garia More ask drivers to take another route instead of taking action against the bandh enforcers,” said Gour Mukherjee, 45, a resident of Boral.

Asim Dutta, 50, a resident of Patuli, said his car was stopped by bandh enforcers at Garia More. “The CPM supporters had blocked the entry point to Patuli. I had to make a detour via Raja S.C. Mullick Road and the Prince Anwar Shah Road connector to reach Ruby General Hospital,” he said.

Metro services were, however, not affected.

The Kasba-Bagha Jatin-Jadavpur belt and parts of Garia wore a deserted look.

The Big Bazaar department store, the shopping mall and the Fame multiplex at Hiland Park off EM Bypass opened only after the bandh was lifted at 6pm.

“We had decided beforehand to keep the shopping mall and the multiplex closed till 6pm to avoid any untoward incident,” a source at Hiland Park said.

Other shopping complexes in the area, including the Unnayan Commercial Centre and the Calcutta Greens Commercial Complex off EM Bypass, also remained closed till the bandh was lifted.

Buses and taxis were hard to come by. “Only a few autorickshaws plied between Haltu and Gariahat. I didn’t get a bus while going to office this morning,” an insurance company employee who lives in Haltu said. “The nearest Metro station from my home is Kalighat, which is 4km away,” he added.

A senior Metro official said the bandh enforcers did not try to disrupt services.

Instances of tension between CPM and Trinamul supporters were reported from Battala and Jora Bridge in Santoshpur.

At Battala, Trinamul and CPM supporters got involved in an altercation over the opening of a bank. All banks at Survey Park and Santoshpur remained closed.

At Jora Bridge, a scuffle broke out between the supporters of the two parties.

S.K. Chaudhari, the additional superintendent of police, South 24-Parganas, said the bandh “passed off peacefully” and there were no arrests.

The bandh failed to have any impact on the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC), Tollygunge Club and South City mall.

“The footfall is more than on other weekends. The club is jampacked,” said M.M. Singh, the CEO of RCGC.

“Tollygunge Club does not fall in the area where the bandh was held. So the weekend crowd has been the same,” said CEO Anil Mukerji.