The 12 Hours Bharat Bandh has disrupted the normal life to a greater extent across every nook and corners of India . Â In New Delhi, commuters faced a tough time getting to work with few autorickshaws and roads being blocked in some places.
“Autos are not plying. After struggling for an hour, I managed to find one which demanded an exorbitant fare,” said Richa Srivastav, a commuter in central Delhi’s Mandir Marg.
“I had to finally walk to the nearest metro station which was almost two kilometres away,” she added.
With several autorickshaw unions joining the bandh, nearly 55,000 autos and 15,000 taxis are expected to stay off the road. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders threatened to block 100 intersections in the capital as part of the shutdown.
While many Delhiites suffered due to the shutdown called by the Left parties, many chose to depend on the Delhi Metro.
“A friend alerted me early morning about the bandh. Thankfully I chose to travel by the Metro to reach office,” Avnish Arora, a marketing executive, told IANS.
East India
In Eastern India, Bandh was called by various parties including Left and Biju Janta Dal and was observed  peacefully.
In Odisha, the movement of trains and commercial vehicles was hit. Protesters blocked roads and highways in several areas and disrupted traffic.
Train services were also hit as protesters squatted on rail tracks at the Cuttack and Bhubaneswar railway stations. Similar protests have also been reported from other parts of the state, a senior state police official told IANS.
“There has been no report of any untoward incident from any part of the state so far. The protests have started on a peaceful note,” he added.
West India
In Western India, the shutdown against rising prices and inflation paralysed life in large parts of Maharashtra and its capital Mumbai with public transport off the roads and government buses being stoned in several places.
Despite stringent security measures taken by the government, there were at least four incidents of government buses being stoned in Pune and Thane as the shutdown by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Shiv Sena, Left, Samajwadi Party and others got underway this morning.
Besides, the shutdown has been supported by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare and even Mumbai’s ‘dabbawallas’, who will not provide their regular tiffin delivery services Thursday.
Several top opposition leaders, including BJP state chief Sudhir Mungantiwar, Gopinath Munde, Kirit Somaiya, Sardar Tara Singh, Gopinath Munde and others, were detained for protesting in public places.
The ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government has deployed tight security all over Mumbai and other parts of the state to counter the opposition shutdown that evoked spontaneous response across the state.
As Mumbai woke up this morning, a majority of the BEST (Brihan Mumbai Electric Supply and Transport) public buses were seen on the roads along with normal suburban train services.
However, services were hit later in the day. Most people preferred to remain indoors in the near-total absence of autorickshaws and taxis.
Authorities at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport made special arrangements for passengers arriving or departing from Mumbai. The focus was also on transit passengers, who would require to commute between the national and international terminals.
Though office-goers decided to start early to encounter shutdown delays, student community was not affected as it’s the vacation season.
Home Minister R.R. Patil told reporters Wednesday night that the government respected the people’s right to agitate but would not tolerate any kind of force or coercion.
South India
Road transport services in Andhra Pradesh came to a halt as the opposition-sponsored daylong shutdown to protest the steep hike in petrol prices evoked wide response across the state.
In a rare show of unity, political rivals joined hands to protest the price hike. At many places, workers of the BJP, TDP, CPI and CPI-M were seen together stopping buses or staging road blockades.
Majority of the APSRTC buses remained confined to depots as the protestors did not allow authorities to take them out. They sat in front of the depots since early morning. Holding their party flags and raising anti-government slogans, they laid siege to the depots.
In Tamil Nadu, the shutdown was more violent.
Public transport buses and auto-rickshaws were plying as usual and shops remained open in most parts of the state. However, five buses were damaged and some shops were closed down by protestors in Kanyakumari, around 650 km from Chennai, according to police.
In Coimbatore, around 500 km from here, some shops were shut down as the BJP has a good support in the district.
Two buses were damaged by protestors in Cuddalore district, around 200 km from here.