Puducherry, Sep 18 (PTI) The day-long bandh called by the INDIA bloc to protest the hike over power tariff and to condemn the territorial government's move to privatise the power sector hit normal life in Puducherry on Wednesday and an elderly woman was injured in a stone pelting incident.
All privately owned transport services were off the roads, while government buses operated with police protection. Police were deployed in strength at all vantage points.
The local bus terminal and main shopping centres presented a deserted look in the town.
Shops and establishments, vegetable sales outlets, hotels and tea stalls were shut in several parts of the town and its suburbs.
Director of School Education P Priyadharshini ordered the closure of all schools, including privately managed institutions, in Puducherry on Wednesday. However, classes IX to XII were exempted from the holiday in view of mid-term tests, official sources said.
With the local buses and autos being off the roads, the turn-out at the OPD blocks in hospitals was less than usual. Government offices reported normal attendance, official sources said.
Demonstrations were held by leaders and cadres of the parties including the Congress and the DMK at various points condemning the "exorbitant rise in power tariff and also to protest the territorial government's move to privatise the power sector." Chief Minister N Rangasamy is heading the AINRC-BJP coalition ministry in the union territory.
The INDIA bloc expressed apprehension that privatisation of power sector would hold the consumers to ransom and also affect the farm sector. They also pointed out that there was a move to introduce pre-paid metres and protested against the proposal.
The protest also turned violent. A sixty-year-old woman passenger travelling on Puducherry government-owned Transport Corporation bus sustained head injuries when an unidentified gang stoned the bus at the Nellithope junction.
Police sources said that the bus was proceeding to a local bus terminal and an unidentified group pelted stones at the vehicle, causing damage to the window panes and injuring the woman passenger who was rushed to a hospital. A case has been registered and further investigation is on.
In the meanwhile, PCC president and Lok Sabha member V Vaithilingam, former Chief Minister V Narayanasamy, DMK opposition leader in the Assembly R Siva, leaders of the Left parties and other units attached to INDIA bloc were taken into preventive custody when they staged a road roko at Odiansalai in a bid to prevent a government bus from operating.
Around 700 people, including party leaders, were taken into preventive custody, police sources said. PTI COR KH
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