Kolkata : Life came to a grinding halt in eastern state West Bengal as a 24-hour general strike called by nine trade unions, including the Left-affiliated CITU, took hold across the communist-ruled state on Tuesday.
The roads were deserted and train services were hit as the shutdown began at dawn to protest price rise of essential commodities, labour law violations, lack of social security for the unorganized sector and disinvestment of public sector enterprises.
Schools, colleges, business establishments and other units primarily remained closed.
The flight service to and from Kolkata?s NSCBI Airport has been severely hit with over a hundred flights cancelled by major carriers.
Jet Airways and JetLite have reportedly cancelled around 70 of its flights, Kingfisher has cancelled 29 and IndiGo and SpiceJet have cancelled 20 flights each.
Earlier the CITU said it would deploy its total organizational strength to ensure a reverberating success of the countrywide general strike on Tuesday.
The strike is also endorsed by the Congress-affiliated INTUC (Indian National Trade Union Congress) besides left-affiliated All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS).