Kochi: The 12-hour hartal called by the BJP and its supporters protesting against the death of Venugopalan Nair after he set himself ablaze before the secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram early on Thursday evoked sharp reactions from people across the state with many openly expressing their displeasure over the culture of hartal. Traders, tourism professionals, people depending on public transport system for commuting and many others said that it was time for the people to come forward and reject such political practices.
Fed up with frequent shutdown calls, enforceable in Kerala and ignored in other states, a group of ex-service officers in Thiruvananthapuram volunteered to take passengers stranded to their destinations, especially the RCC and the medical college hospital. They reached the railway station in their bikes and in cars and plied two to three sorties each and wound up their unnamed operation around 10 am. “We plan to do this methodically under our banner next time. For now, let our service remain anonymous,” said a former officer.
In Pangode near Thiruvananthapuram the shop owners forced the BJP supporters to retreat from their attempts to close the shops on Friday morning.
In Kochi and suburbs a section of traders and merchants opened their establishments while a large number of three-wheelers operated even as a group of tourism professionals sta ged a protest march from Durbar Hall Ground to Marine Drive against hartal culture and its detrime ntal impact on tourism sector in the state. Over 100-people took part in the sil ent march with placards.
Most shops in Mulanthurthy, in the outskirts of Ernakulam, opened as the local unit of the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Sami thi has taken a decision not to cooperate with hartals anymore, said MP Binu, general secretary of the unit. “Traders, especially small scale merchants, are the worst affe cted by the frequent hartals. We have now decided not to cooperate with hartals anymore”, he said.
Most three-wheelers operated at the busy Ernakulam South railway station . “As most of the autorickshaws were present our job was easy,” said Raju P. Nair, general convener of ‘Say No to Hartal’.
A dire outcome of hartal was the near-total suspension of business for the houseboat industry in Alappuzha. Rows and rows of motorized houseboats were stacked at the Finishing Point as guests cancelled their bookings, afraid of untoward incidents on the hartal day. The shutdown dealt a heavy blow to houseboat business in Alappuzha.
