The day-long industrial strike called by Left trade unions today brought West Bengal and Kerala came to a grinding halt but rail, road and air services remained largely unaffected in rest of the country.
With the ruling Left Front governments supporting the strike called to protest against surging inflation and the Centre's "anti-people" economic policies, there was a complete shut down in West Bengal with disruption in air and rail traffic.
The strikers did not spare the vital IT sector in Salt Lake in Kolkata from the purview of the strike. Flights to Kolkata were cancelled due to the strike by airport employees.
While life was paralysed in Kerala, air services remained unaffected in the state.
Inspector General (Law and Order), Raj Kanojia told PTI in Kolkata that no untoward incident was reported from any part of the state but train services were disrupted with protesters squatting on the rail track at several places.
Additional policemen and Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed in the city to maintain law and order, police said.
Airports Authority of India officials said in New Delhi going by the number of flight across the country, the schedules were running "almost normally". Besides flight to Kolkata, some flights to Mumbai were also affected by the strike, they said.
