Keralites Celebrated One More Hartal Utsav

The dawn-to-dusk shutdown strike called by the Left parties on Saturday in protest against the hike in the fuel prices paralysed normal life in the southern Indian state of Kerala.


The Kerala State Road Transport Corporation did not run its service in most places. It came forward to operate a few services in the state’s northern town of Calicut following protests by the stranded passengers.In fact, the hartal mostly affected train and air passengers who got down at railway stations and airports in the morning and were caught unawares by the protest which was declared only on Friday evening.

In Kochi, The KSRTC bus stand was almost deserted. The bus stand was just a parking ground for KSRTC buses, including the Volvo low-floor buses introduced to reduce the traffic woes of Kochiites.


Hartal alias bandh,as it was formerly known causes a huge financial drain on KSRTC mainly due to the failure of the schedules and also the damages incurred to the vehicles during incidents like stone pelting, burning etc.As evident in previous cases KSRTC falls an easy prey to unruly hooligans who take undue advantage of the situation and causes damage. KSRTC has an estimated revenue of over 3.6 crore daily and as usual if the hartal turns into a bandh KSRTC will incur huge losses. and what is even more disturbing is the fact that KSRTC has to pay salary and other increments for the hartal day even if the buses fail to operate.


Image (C) To Jimmy