Millions join national strike in India to protest privatisation plans
1 hour, 40 minutes ago
NEW DELHI (AFP) - A national strike has disrupted flights and shut down government offices and banks in India as millions of state workers staged a one-day protest over moves to liberalise Asia's fourth-largest economy.
Television station NDTV said some 40 million workers had joined Thursday's strike, matching the prediction of M.K. Pandhe, president of the trade union group CITU, who Thursday described the response as "unprecedented".
Union leaders said the massive stay-away was the first step in a fight against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has allowed the majority sell-off of state-owned firms and airports and eased rules on foreign investment.
"This will be just a warning for the government," said Pandhe. "Unless the government undertakes a comprehensive review of its policies, we will call for a much bigger action -- we may go for longer strikes."
It was the first nationwide strike called by India's unions since Singh was elected last year, and comes after the government last month decided to sell 74 percent stakes in New Delhi and Mumbai international airports.
The air force deployed some 3,000 personnel at 29 major airports, an official said, as some 20,000 airport employees joined the strike which caused havoc in parts of the country.
The worst affected state was West Bengal, where a Communist government has ruled for 28 years. Officials said operations at the airport and the main port in the capital Kolkata were at a standstill, while government offices were shut and buses off the roads.
Another leftist bastion, Kerala, was also badly affected.
The Press Trust of India said public sector unions in most other states, especially those in the banking and insurance sectors, joined the protest and staged rallies.
Thousands of travellers were stranded in south India when budget carriers such as Kingfisher Airlines and Air Deccan cancelled most of their flights after airport workers joined the strike.
But a government contingency plan appeared to have kept disruptions in New Delhi and Mumbai, the country's two busiest airports, to a minimum.
"Airport operations are normal and there is no disruption because of the strike," Mumbai airport director Sudhir Kumar told AFP.
Vishwas Utagi, joint secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association, said the financial sector in Mumbai, India's commercial capital, had come to "a virtual standstill".
He said millions of government employees took part in the strike across the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital.
Forex dealers said trading volumes had also dropped considerably as dealing rooms of state-owned banks were thinly staffed. However, the Mumbai stock exchange's 30-share Sensex rose in morning trade above the 8,700 level for the first time ever, after having closed Wednesday at a record 8,606.03.
In the southern city of Bangalore, the country's technology hub, schools were closed while government offices reported thin attendance.
In Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala state, state offices were functioning on skeletal staff, a government spokesman said.
Singh's government, seeking to walk a tightrope between pro-poor and pro-investment policies, has said economic reforms are key to boosting growth and paying for its ambitious social welfare plans.
Economists say growth, now running at seven percent, must rise to lift more than one quarter of India's one billion-plus population out of poverty.
But the government has had to retreat on some reforms in the face of opposition from its communist backers, including plans to sell strategic stakes in over a dozen state firms.
The unions have put forward 16 demands that include halting stake sales in profitable state firms, opposing foreign investment, tightening hire-and-fire laws and boosting savings interest rates for pensioners.