Agartala, November 28 : Normal life was crippled in Tripura on Monday due to a 12-hour shutdown called by the ruling Left Front to protest against demonetisation of high-value currency.
Police said more than 1,500 activists of different political parties were arrested for picketing government offices and railway stations during the dawn-to-dusk strike.
Government and semi-government as well as private offices, educational institutions, shops and business establishments were closed.
Most banks remained open as these were out of the shutdown’s purview. The protest did not affect flights in and out of Agartala.
Almost all vehicles went off the roads.
Train services between Tripura and the rest of the country were affected as Left workers blocked several tracks at different locations.
“The shutdown is peaceful,” police spokesman Uttam Kumar Bhowmik told IANS.
Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress and Congress, opposed the shutdown and instead decided to stage protest rallies on the same issue.
BJP workers rallied in different parts of Tripura to oppose the strike.
“The strike was total, successful and spontaneous,” Tripura Left Front convenor and former Lok Sabha member Khagen Das said. Das, a former Health and Revenue Minister, said the people, especially the poor as well as small and medium traders, were the worst victim of the Modi government’s demonetisation decision.
