CITU 'all-India' strike hits only Bengal IT sector

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Work at Salt Lake's Sector V, the hub of West Bengal's information technology industry, was brought to a halt today by the 24-hour all-India industrial strike called by the Left trade unions as contract buses and public transport stayed off the roads.

While the BPO and the software services companies in other cities functioned normally despite the "all-India" tag given to the strike by the CITU, their counterparts here faced one of the worst disruptions of work in recent times despite enjoying exemptions under the law as a "public utility".

Shyamal Chakraborty, the CITU's state president, declined to comment when asked why the "all-India" strike had affected only the units here and not in other locations, even in Left-ruled Kerala.

"I have no comment on this," Chakraborty said, when contacted.

Webel, the state government's nodal agency for promotion of the IT industry, reported an employee turnout of less than 10% at its offices. Around 40,000 people work for the various IT and ITeS companies in Sector V and the new Rajarhat development adjoining it.

Webel's managing director, Debanjan Dutta, said the agency has stopped tracking the impact of strikes on employee attendance since many IT companies "do not like it." So, he said, he would not been able to give the figures for today's bandh.

But SA Ahmed, chairman of the newly-constituted Nabadiganta Industrial Township Authority, which was set up to manage Sector V, said only 35-40% of staff turned up at the IT hub.

"We ensured that willing people can join work with the deployment of enough police force," said Ahmed.

SP Mukherjee, managing director of Databazaar India, a US headquartered BPO, said Databazaar has never had to stop work for one whole day since it was set up in 2001, as it had to today.

"We transferred some of the crucial jobs to our Miami centre in the US. Today's experience is something different from earlier bandhs," said Mukherjee.

With the official estimate of a 35% turnout, many mid-level companies decided to keep their offices closed and make up by working on Saturday.

Even in Kochi in Left-ruled Kerala, software majors like Cognizant Technology Solutions reported business as usual. But CTS sources said their centre in Kolkata reported an attendance of less than 15%.

"Only people who are in the support business came to work, others will work on Saturday," said a software professional at CTS.