New Delhi : The Uttar Pradesh police, badly outnumbered during violence and vandalism in Noida yesterday, are out in full force today, the second day of the Bharat bandh or strike. They have so far registered 64 cases and 71 people have been arrested for yesterday’s Noida violence, which, factory owners claim caused losses of about Rs. 600 crore.
Industry body Assocham has estimated that total losses caused in the country by the two-day bandh will be a whopping Rs. 26,000 crore.
The damage in Noida, an industrial township just 11 km east of Delhi, was extensive yesterday. Several factories and small scale units were attacked, 24 cars and a fire engine were set on fire; another 12 cars were smashed and vandalised.
Security cameras at a company that deals with surveillance equipment showed a group of 10 people a entering the building, smashing glass, breaking and picking up computers. One person in the mob even filmed the violence on his cell phone.
It is not clear yet if the attackers, who went from building to building vandalising them, were trade union workers or people leveraging the bandh to loot offices. The factory owners claim that the police reached the sites of violence late. The administration says it is better prepared today, with more forces called in to secure Noida. The police will hold flag marches there today and most schools are closed in the township.
The bandh has been near total in Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, while it got a mixed response in the national capital Delhi, where there are fewer autorickshaws on the roads on day 2 of the bandh, although government buses are running. In West Bengal, a determined Mamata Banerjee government has kept the situation far more normal than usually seen during bandhs.
The Bharat bandh has been called to protest against rising prices and disinvestment in public sector enterprises and to demand more jobs. Nine major unions are participating in the strike, including the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sabha, Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC).