Mumbai may skip Bharat Bandh

As the country prepares for the nationwide bandh on February 20 and 21 called by trade unions in banking insurance public sector undertakings transporters and unorganised sectors it seems that the city wonrsquot be drastically affected by the twoday bandh as most unions arenrsquot going on strike for two days MiD DAY spoke to various organisations and herersquos what you should and shouldnrsquot expectu00a0 Transport On the whole it seems that the cityrsquos transport services will be unaffected as trains and taxis will continue to ply Autos under the Sharad Rao union will not ply on February 20 for 24 hours and even though BEST is supporting the bandh buses will be plying on roads Taxis will be work as usual We are not supporting the bandh Additionally we met the transport commissioner V N More and told him that we will not be participating in the bandh at all mdash Anthony Quadros general secretary Mumbai Taximenrsquos Union We are supporting the bandh and the cause but will not be actively participating in the bandh mdash Suhas Nalawade general secretary BEST Jagrit Kamgar Sangathana We are not participating in the bandh in any form mdash Ajay Singh general secretary Western Railway Majdoor Sangh u00a0 APMC Markets Business at the Agriculture Produce Market Committee APMC markets would continue as usual during the twoday nationwide strike Although markets will be functional we would like to make it clear that we support the bandh and the cause However we are keen that produce sent by farmers is not wasted and hence prefer to work Besides we do not want to trouble the public in any way But in case of commodities not reaching the market owing to transportation problems we canrsquot do anything mdash Kirti Rana Director APMC and President of Confederation of All India Traders Maharashtra Medical care While private and BMCrun hospitals and clinics will remain unaffected by the bandh nurses clerical staff and ward boys of staterun hospitals will strike for one dayu00a0 Dr T P Lahane Dean JJ group of hospitals The central union of nurses and others has given us an oral intimation about a strike on February 20 and 21 Except for the doctors all other staff including the nurses clerks technicians and other nonmedical staff would be observing the strike on both days Dr A Salvi Deputy dean KEM Hospital We are part of emergency services and hence will not participate in the strike None of the unions from the hospital have given us any intimation of going on strikeu00a0 Banks Most banks will remain shut for the twoday bandh Ten lakh bank employees and officers working in 90000 bank branches of all public private foreign cooperative and regional rural banks across India will observe a 48hour strike from Feb 20 to 21 against the governmentrsquos antiworkersrsquo policy mdash Vishwas Utagi VP All India Bank Employees Association Law amp order Tomorrow we will disclose our plan mdash DCP D S Bhandare GRP Other services Essential services like water supply electricity will continue as routine Only garbage collection and cleaning of roads would be affected as workers will strike for two days Reason for bandh Workers are striking for two days demanding for its 10point common charter which includes control rising prices fighting corruption creating employment and providing social security to all citizens Govt notification The state has warned all Class IV employees to withdraw their strike on February 20 and 21 They have said that they would issue disciplinary action against any officer or employee found participating in the strike and causing disruptions According to the instructions necessary steps have been taken by all divisional commissioners and police commissioner to ensure smooth functioning of the state u00a0