Bharat Bandh remains peaceful in Madhya Pradesh

Barring few incidents of violence, the day-long bandh call given by NDA and Left to protest steep hike in the prices of petrol was by and large peaceful.

The ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh described the bandh as "successful as people supported it because of huge hike in the prices of petrol".

Addressing a meeting at Bhawani Chowk here, state BJP president Prabhat Jha said the common man is facing lot of problems because of Rs7.50 hike in the price of petrol.

The bandh was successful in the entire state with all markets and business establishments remaining closed.

Though essential services, educational institutions holding exams, government offices, banks and insurance companies offices were spared from the bandh, the traffic on the roads was negligible till 1500 hrs.

The wheat procurement process too was spared from the bandh as today was the last date for procuring wheat on MSP.

CPI and CPM staged dharna near Bharat Talkies in the city. CPM state secreary Badal Saroj and CPI leader Shailendra Shaili demanded rollback in the petrol price hike.

Instead of arresting the rising inflation, the government is increasing the prices of petrol, despite the fact that in the international market prices of crude oil are falling.

Meanwhile, the main Opposition Congress alleged that the bandh was sponsored by the state government and the activists of the BJP and its allied organisations forced the people to observe bandh with the support of local police and administration.

State Congress media department chairman Manak Agrawal alleged that number of petty traders, even those selling tea and samosa, were beaten by the ruling party members specially in MP Nagar area.

He further alleged that police instead of registering complaint against those indulged in violence have booked the sufferers at the behest of ruling party in the state.

In Jabalpur, saffron workers damaged a hair-cutting salon following which its owner allegedly beat up a BJP worker severely. The worker was hospitalised later, police said.

Reports of effective bandh were received from Gwalior, Ujjain, Rewa, Shahdol, Sagar and Bhind cities which was by and large peaceful.

In Indore, all markets were shut down and public transport was off roads in Malwa region, including Indore division

It was a peaceful bandh across the Malwa region, Senior Superintendent of Police Sai A Manohar told PTI.

Several cloth businessmen, wheat merchants and jewellers cooperated with the bandh and did not open their shops. Petrol pumps were also closed as a precautionary measure to avoid any conflict with protestors, police said.

All roadside vendors including tea stalls and hand driven vegetable carts were missing from the site in the city.

However specially deployed teams of district BJP unit thronged in the markets urging shopkeepers to close their business by offering a flower twig, a party spokesman Alok Dubey said.

At Rajwara, BJP activists burnt an effigy of three petrol pumps, police said.

Miscreants looted food items at some roadside outlets when vendors asked them to wait to finish the material in the early morning at Jayrampur colony, police said.

BJP city president Shankar Lalwani said his party stood with common man on the issue of inflation caused due to petrol price hike and downfall of Indian rupee against a dollar.

Lalwani claimed that the bandh was a great success, while city Congress chief Pramod Tandon termed it a political gimmick of BJP. "No government at Centre could resist the crude oil prices' hike, and it was imminent for the oil companies to raise the petrol prices, Tandon defended.