‘Bengal recorded most man-day losses in 2006 due to bandhs’

D S Rawat,ASSOCHAM secretary general,said: “With the state’s election due in 2011,West Bengal might be experiencing frequent bandhs by political parties and the losses would be certainly very high and the flow of investment may be impacted.”

In 2006,Tamil Nadu had the maximum number of strikes with 50,followed by West Bengal where there were 29 strikes,Gujarat with 23 and Andhra Pradesh with 18 and Haryana with 14 strikes.

Kali Ghosh,CITU general secretary,however said the number of strikes in the state had gone down in the past few years.

“Even workers do not enjoy declaring strikes but often it is the only option left to them but the number of strikes in the past few years has declined. There have been strikes in the jute mills but that has to do with the anarchic condition of the mills,” he said.

He also pointed out that according to the labour report of West Bengal,the number of strikes in 2006 was 9,which resulted in the loss of 0.24 million man-days and there were 265 lock-outs that resulted in the loss of 18.75 million man-days. In 2008,the number of strikes and lock-outs were 11 and 276 that resulted in man-days lost of around 13.35 and 17.14 million. In 2009,the figure stands roughly at 12 strikes with 380 man-days lost and 262 lock-outs with 15.70 million man-days lost.

Trinamool’s Partha Chatterjee,Leader of Opposition in the Assembly,said the party had declared to forgo calling strikes at the smallest pretext.

“We have decided that strikes are the last weapon and shall be used as a last resort. Hence,in spite of the price hike we have not called a strike even once and we are organising meets in various districts to create awareness. Moreover,the image that this creates about the state is one of chaos. Furthermore,more than strikes,the lock-outs create greater loss of man-days,” he said.