Half-day bandh call given by the Congress in the city on Monday in protest against Maoist attack in Chhatisgarh passed off peacefully with no untoward incident being reported form any part of the city.
Half-day bandh received mixed response. While in many areas of the city, shopkeepers responded to the bandh call by keeping the shutters of their business establishments down till the afternoon, in many areas shops were seen open.
Earlier in the morning, the Congress leaders gathered at the statue of Pt Jawahar lal Nehru where paying tributes to Pt Nehru on his death anniversary, the party leaders accompanied by their supporters dispersed in different directions to ensure bandh.
Congress workers led by Pintu Joshi went to Palasia locality and 56 dukan to enforce closure of shops, while Congress MlA Ashwin Joshi spearheaded bandh call in Rajwada locality.
Similarly a group of the Congress workers led by Narendra Saluja, Johar Manpurwala and Shailesh Garg enforced closure of shops in Tower Chowraha and Sapna Sangeeta road, on the other hand women Cogress leaders Kiran Jireti, Sadhna Bhandari, Archana Jaiswal and Uma Soni moved around in Jawahar Marg locality and enforced closure of shops. Incidents of skirmishes were also reported from some parts of the city with reports of verbal brawl between the shop-keepers and the Congress workers over closure of shops.
An incident of stone pelting at Reliance Fresh outlet on Aerodrom road was reported. Impact of bandh was also visible at academic institutions premises with NSUI leaders were seen visiting various colleges and university faculties and enforcing bandh. At some colleges, the NSUI leaders had a tiff with the college management over the bandh on account of ongoing examinations.