Taxis off roads, tough commute ahead in Mumbai

Brace for a tough commute to office on Monday if you have not decided to stay put at home already.

The opposition-sponsored bandh over the fuel price hike is set to cripple transport services in the city and hit commuters hard.

Not many office-goers are buying the government’s assurance to keep transport services smooth on the day.

Taxis across the city went off the roads at midnight on Sunday; auto rickshaw operators are likely to stay indoors fearing attacks. While railways, both central and western, and the BEST administration have already said that extra precaution has been taken to ensure normal services, the protesters are likely to make these their first targets. Rail rokos are likely to disrupt local services during the day and despite security measures at the Mumbai airport, flights — both incoming and outgoing — may suffer due to the non-availability of public transport. 

The state government, on its part, has made it mandatory for all senior officers to report to duty early on Monday morning. It has already made more than 10,000 preventive arrests in several parts of the state on Sunday. It plans to make the maximum police deployment to avert any untoward incident. In Mumbai, the police made as many as 1,000 preventive arrests till Sunday evening.

All the divisional commissioners, district collectors and superintendents of the police have been asked to take precautionary measures. Acting chief secretary Chandra Iyengar, while video conferencing with the officials, has asked special squads to tackle untoward incidents.

The state has instructed immediate registration of panchnamas of damage to property and other incidents. It has also directed the authorities concerned to video shoot and have CCTV coverage of people and party workers participating in the bandh.

Though essential services like milk supply, vegetable vendors and ambulances have been excluded from the bandh, the state has ordered additional police protection to public as well as private hospitals. The police have also been directed to provide security to schools that will be open on Monday.

However, since the school bus associations have supported the bandh, many schools are likely to be shut on Monday. An office-bearer of the Bombay West suburb school bus association said that 2,500 of their members will be off the road affecting nearly 2.5 lakh school children.

After the state government issued an order directing all the staff members to report to office, employees from the key departments opted to report to office on Sunday evening itself. Apart from the home, public works, public health, disaster management and general administrative departments, the staff working with Mantralaya canteen reported to work a day in advance.

The government has also arranged special buses to ferry government employees from Bandra Colony to Mantralaya. Home minister RR Patil has directed his department to depute adequate police force in Vidarbha in the wake of the possible support to the bandh by the Maoist groups and the parties demanding independent Vidarbha.

“If Maoists and parties soliciting independent Vidarbha participate in the bandh, it could be major threat to the law and order situation there,” an official from the home department said.