Infotech sector puts up brave face

August 20, 2008 and July 17, 2009. Two bandhs in a span of 11 months have left the state's sunshine sector confused. For, August 20 was a Citu-sponsored bandh, where the IT sector managed to function almost normally, thanks to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's efforts. On Friday, the bandh was called by Congress, which had gone into political hibernation all these years.But for the IT sector, it was far worse than the last Citu-sponsored bandh.
Sector V was caught off guard when the bandh was finally declared on Thursday, post the Mangalkote attack on Congress MLAs. "We never imagined that an incident in far off Burdwan could have spelt a total shutdown for the state. We were, in fact, prepared to work like we did during any other bandh called by Trinamool Congress," said a senior manager in an IT company.
"Since this, too, was an Opposition-called bandh, we were sure that the state government would counter it by making public transport function. But we were in for a shock. Friday turned out to be a state-sponsored bandh," he added. The state government had arranged for police vehicles near various points around Sector V during the August 20 bandh. This had helped because a number of government vehicles had plied and the workers managed to get to Sector V.
On Friday, no government vehicle was in sight. So, ready-to-help police vehicles weren't really of any help. And the IT sector wore a deserted look since morning.
Those who managed to reach office had a harrowing time. Bipul Tarafdar of Infinity Towers said: "I could make it to work because a family travelling from the airport gave me a lift from Teghoria to Technopolis." Ravindra Chamaria, chairman, Infinity, couldn't be so matter-of-fact, though. "This politics of bandhs must be stopped. Our politicians must realize that they are killing the state's prospects by calling bandhs on every issue," he said. Infinity, which houses companies like HCL, Airtel, Nortel, Aircel, AIG, Databazar.com and BNKe Solutions, registered a 15% attendance on an average. Arup Dasgupta, managing director, Metogic Systems, said: "When I reached office around 8.30 am, I realised with a shock that this was not like any other Opposition-called bandh. Not a single public bus was plying."
Several IT companies, such as Alcatel Lucent, HCL and Anshin declared Friday a holiday and planned to work on Saturday instead. But BPOs in Sector V couldn't afford the luxury.
Most of them, including IBM, Wipro, TCS, HSBC and Acclaris worked full house because they had to cater to international clients. Some of them had their staff stay back on Thursday night. Others, like Acclaris, had them picked up from their homes before 6 am. Kalyan Kar, managing director, Acclaris India, said: "We had organized things the day before, soon after the bandh was called. And so, we had 95% of our staff working on Friday. This was indeed a very positive message on the will to work."
His optimism was shared by S A Ahmed, chairman, Naba Diganta Industrial Township Authority (NDITA), which runs Sector V. "The IT sector registered fairly good attendance despite the bandh," he said.