No major impact on normal life due to one-day nationwide strike call
New Delhi (PTI): Normal life largely remained unaffected by the strike call given by a joint forum of central trade unions across the country on Thursday to protest against the alleged "anti-worker, anti-farmer and anti-national pro-corporate policies of the central government".
According to reports, a mixed response was seen in states including Odisha, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.
Normal life was affected in Odisha due to a 12-hour nationwide agitation, as per reports.
Public transport, markets, educational institutions, and business establishments were affected as major roads, including national and state highways, were blocked.
The bandh's impact was felt in all major urban areas, including Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Balasore, Berhampur and Sambalpur.
In Jharkhand, banking, insurance and coal sectors have been affected by the strike, Bank of India (BOI) Employees' Union state Deputy General Secretary Umesh Das said.
Left parties and the Congress have also extended their support to the strike in the state.
In Chhattisgarh, several nationalised banks remained closed as employees joined the strike. Staff of insurance companies, post offices, along with labourers and farmers, also participated in the agitation, affecting operations in their respective sectors. Mining activities in the mineral-rich state were partially hit.
However, transport services in the state functioned normally, and shops, markets and most business establishments remained open.
Normal life was largely unaffected in many areas, including Durg district in Chhattisgarh, where operations at the Bhilai Steel Plant continued as usual.
Normalcy was affected in port operations in Tamil Nadu, and workers staged protests. Port operations in Thoothukudi and Chennai bore the brunt of the agitation.
The industrial hub of Sriperumbudur also witnessed significant activity as workers from several manufacturing units held gate meetings and demonstrations in solidarity with the strike.
While production in some major automobile and electronic facilities continued with reduced manpower, the movement of goods in the Sriperumbudur-Oragadam industrial belt faced delays due to the scarcity of transport vehicles.
In Kerala, though the state government declared a dies-non (a day when no legal business is carried on) for government employees, attendance at offices was expected to remain low as transport vehicles remained off the roads.
Apart from government offices, shops and businesses were also likely to remain closed due to the nationwide 24-hour strike.
Travellers were among the worst affected, with KSRTC and private buses remaining off the roads.
Auto-rickshaw unions also announced that they would not operate during the strike.
Punjab's ruling party, AAP, has extended support to the nationwide strike.
The party announced that its cadre across Punjab and the rest of the country would join the shutdown shoulder-to-shoulder with workers and farmers.
The agitation drew a mixed response in Goa, with banking operations affected while essential services remained undisrupted. Nationalised banks and offices of many insurance companies remained shut in the coastal state.
Over 25,000 civilian employees working with defence establishments across Madhya Pradesh reported to work an hour late on Thursday to support the strike. Markets, schools and colleges remained open across the state.
The strike call failed to evoke any response in West Bengal as vehicles plied normally and state government and private offices recorded usual turnout.
Similarly, the strike call failed to evoke much response in Tripura. Government offices, banks, educational institutions, and markets remained open, while road transport and train services operated as usual across the state.
It had little impact in Gujarat, with most services and commercial establishments functioning as usual across the state.
Normal life remained largely unaffected in major cities, including Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot.
Markets, shops, industrial units and educational institutions operated without disruption, while public transport services and autorickshaws ran without any problem.
The joint forum of trade unions has claimed that 30 crore workers are being mobilised for a "general strike" to protest against the new Labour Codes, among other issues.
All India Trade Union Congress General Secretary Amarjeet Kaur told PTI that the general strike has started across the country on Thursday morning, and that she has received reports of agitation from states, including Assam, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Kerala, Odisha and Bihar.
She also informed about the processions in the industrial areas of New Delhi and that traffic on the roads is relatively light.
Kaur said banking, insurance, postal, transport, health, coal and non-coal mines, gas pipeline and electricity sectors will be affected by the strike.
She further said the farmers’ unions are also holding protests in their respective areas.
The trade unions’ immediate demands include the scrapping of four Labour Codes and rules, withdrawal of the Draft Seed Bill and Electricity Amendment Bill, and the ''Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act''.
The unions are also demanding the restoration of MGNREGA and the scrapping of the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025. The joint forum includes INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, SEWA, AICCTU, LPF and UTUC.
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Rising dog bite cases: Maharashtra official suggests non-invasive surgery to control animal numbers
Mumbai (PTI): Amid rising concerns over dog bites in Maharashtra, a senior Indian Administrative Service official on Thursday recommended non-invasive surgery like transvaginal laparoscopic ovariectomy to control the animal population, especially that of stray dogs.
Dr Ramaswami N, secretary with the state animal husbandry and dairy development department, said non-invasive laparoscopic procedures for animal birth control must be adopted to curb the rising stray dog population and rabies cases.
"We should find a technical solution. We could use transvaginal laparoscopic ovariectomy, as laparoscopy is widely used in humans for various diseases like pancreatic cancer," Ramaswami said at a national symposium on 'Role of Canine in One Health: Building partnership and resolving challenges' in Nagpur.
He advocated training more veterinarians in such minimally invasive surgeries.
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"Maharashtra has around 17 lakh stray dogs, with ward-level data available, and nearly 9.7 lakh dog bite incidents reported. The state is a major contributor to the country's annual rabies toll of 18,000 to 20,000 deaths. More than 60 per cent of rabies fatalities are among children below 15 years of age," he said.
Ramaswami said the major issue remains ineffective implementation of Animal Birth Control (ABC) measures.
"I have analysed data in all the corporations. It is hardly 2-3 per cent and in some places it is 8 per cent. With this rate, we cannot control the growth of the stray dogs' population," he said.
Maharashtra, among the most urbanised states of the country, faces pressure of population growth, civic amenities and a large stray animal population, he said, adding Pune city and its peripheries alone account for around four lakh stray dogs.
He said traditional sterilisation surgeries require dogs to be admitted for four to five days, posing logistical challenges for smaller municipalities.
"It is a big task for small municipalities to admit a dog for 4-5 days after surgery in the traditional way of operating them. We tried with all mobile units but it involves lot of care in post operation period for the animal to recover. Compared to it, an alternative like laparoscopic surgery is appropriate but we need more and more trained surgeons. You just have to scale it up by training veterinary doctors. It is not rocket science," he said.
Highlighting preventive steps, Ramaswami said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has approved 29 animal hospitals across all municipal corporations in the state.
Two multispecialty animal hospitals are being set up, one operational in Pune and another coming up at in Goregaon at a cost of Rs 80 crore, he added, his remarks coming against the backdrop of concerns flagged in the Winter Session of the Assembly last December.
In a written reply, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had said Maharashtra recorded more than 30 lakh cases of dog bites in the last six years, while 30 people died of rabies between 2021 and 2023.
Shinde was responding to questions raised by MLAs across party lines over the rising stray dog population in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Kalyan-Dombivli etc. He had said there has been a significant increase in the number of stray dogs in both rural and urban areas.
Replying to another query, Shinde had said local bodies were directed to intensify animal birth control and anti-rabies vaccination programmes in accordance with the Supreme Court's directions issued in August.
The Urban Development Department issued instructions to civic bodies on November 14, while similar directions were given to rural local bodies on November 27, he had said.
Shinde had informed the House that Animal Birth Control Rules 2023, are being implemented across the state following government orders issued in March.
