Indian activists and trade union members participate in a demonstration demanding better working conditions. (File photo)
An Indian trade union leader has been killed in the city of Ambala, amid a two-day nationwide strike in protest against high inflation and the fuel price hike.
According to reports, Narender Singh was hit by a bus on Wednesday, the first day of strike, after he tried to stop the vehicle from plying.
Meanwhile, the strike organizers say the walk-out has crippled India’s financial sector as all banks, insurance companies and commercial establishments have remained shut on the first day of the walk-out.
V. Utagi, the vice president of All India Bank Employees Association said, “The banking and financial sector is 100 percent closed, not only in Mumbai and Maharashtra but all over the country.”
Utagi added that all banks -- nationalized, private, foreign, regional, rural and cooperative -- had “wholeheartedly” taken part in the strike.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has urged the unions to call off the strike, stating that the move will cause a “loss to our economy.”
However, Atridev Tiwari, the general secretary of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (Indian Workers Union), which is one of the main unions leading the strike, said, “It doesn’t matter what the prime minister says now because we cannot rely on his word. He says something and does something else.”
Tapan Sen, the general secretary of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), also said, “The workers are being totally ignored and this is reflected in the government’s anti-labor policies.”
The strike is supposed to have the most negative influence on the eastern West Bengal and southern Kerala states, where the unions are strong.
In September 2012, a one-day strike against reforms almost paralyzed some cities and cost the Indian economy millions of dollars in lost business.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/20/289909/india-trade-union-leader-killed-in-ambala/
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