January 11, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 26, 1422

CALCUTTA, Jan 10: Police in India’s West Bengal state arrested over 1,300 people as a one-day strike by socialists and ultra-leftists against the state’s communist rulers brought the province to a near standstill.

Businesses, including the Calcutta stock exchange, were shut and normally jammed streets were largely deserted due to the strike called by the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation.

The strike was called over increased charges for government hospitals and colleges, as well as higher electricity charges.

“We have arrested 1,085 SUCI activists and 261 CPI-ML workers during the strike,” Chayan Mukherjee, inspector-general for law and order, told Reuters.

SUCI leaders said 1,425 of their activists had been arrested.

Police patrols were visible in many parts of Calcutta, the capital of the eastern state. On many traffic-free streets, children, whose schools were closed, played cricket next to shuttered shops. At a few crossings, there were scuffles between small groups of strike supporters and police.

“The reaction to the strike is spontaneous. Trains and buses are plying but are largely empty. The police are making random arrests,” Amitabha Chatterjee, SUCI spokesman, told Reuters.

An Indian Railways spokesman said services of a few short-distance suburban trains were affected by the strike, but added that long distance services remained unaffected.—Reuters