Oppn bandh partial successful in UP

LUCKNOW: Police lathi-charge, preventive arrests, disruption of rail traffic and blockades on national highways marked the all-India bandh called by the opposition parties, which had a noticeable impact almost across Uttar Pradesh.
While some markets and business establishments remained closed till the evening, shops and private concerns were found open in patches and conducting brisk business as well.
In the state capital, police used force to restrict the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers from taking out a procession from their party office on Vidhan Sabha Marg. Led by senior party leaders including Arun Jaitley, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Lalji Tondon and Surya Pratap Shahi, the saffron brigade was virtually herded back into the party office compound by the police and PAC contingent on duty.
Then protest concluded with the senior party leaders and their supporters courting arrest following which they were taken to the reserve police lines.
Though the impact of the bandh was visible across Hazratganj, Lalbagh, Aminabad and Old City areas, business was usual in Gomtinagar, Mahanagar, Indiranagar and Aliganj areas.
SP workers were also lathi-charged in Varanasi when they tried to take put a procession on bullock carts which had their two-wheelers mounted on them to depict that the cost of petrol was now unaffordable to them.
In Allahabad, markets and business establishments remained closed throughout the day. The strike called by the tempo taxi union compounded the woes of office goers while roads remained deserted for major part of the day.
Adequate police force had been deployed in the district. Though no untoward incident was reported in the district, the BJP and SP workers clashed with the police at some places. Police cane-charged bandh supporters in Civil Lines, Shivkuti and Katra.
In Etawah, passengers on board the Shatabdi Express and Etawah-Kanpur passenger trains had a tough time as the rail route was blocked by the SP and BJP workers respectively as a part of the protest.
In Dadri, SP workers blocked the Bulandshahr-Ghaziabad Road for several hours while in Agra they laid siege to National Highway-II.
Sustained and heavy downpour in Meerut and its adjoining districts restricted the movement of the protesters till afternoon. Thereafter, sloganeering followed by preventive arrests followed as a mere token deomnstration than a power-packed demonstration.
Apart from more than two dozen trains running late due to blockades
by SP and BJP workers, the train traffic remained by and large unaffected. The air traffic too had little impact with only one of the 15 flights schedule to take off from Amausi airport being cancelled.
The IndiGo flight (9W2462) from Lucknow to Kolkata was cancelled as the related incoming flight from Kolkata to Lucknow was cancelled due to the bandh call in West Bengal.