Thiruvananthapuram/Kolkata:
The nationwide strike by trade unions against price rise paralysed the business and government establishments, but the worst affected were Left-ruled West Bengal and Kerala.
Normal life was badly hit in West Bengal due to the strike, which virtually took the shape of a 'Bangla Bandh', with over 1,000 arrests being made.
Capital Kolkata wore a deserted look with offices, shops, bazars, commercial establishments and educational institutions closed and state and private buses off the roads.
Barring Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, no minister attended the State Secretariat where out of a total of 6,000 employees only 60 were present.
Three IAS and three IPS officers attended office at the Secretariat.
Muslim dominated areas were, however, exempted from the purview of the strike by the CITU because of Ramzan.
Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Surjit Kar Purakayastha said 1,200 Trinamool Congress workers were arrested for demonstrating near the office of Howrah district magistrate for violating prohibitory orders.
He said 38 Trinamool Congress youth wing workers were arrested for demonstrating before the State Secretariat. The strike was opposed by Mamata Banerjee's party.
Five strike supporters were arrested for ransacking a restaurant in central Kolkata, he said.
Except for one road block at Jagulia in Nadia district, all state and national highways were free from blockade, he said.
One person was killed and three others were injured in an armed clash between Trinamool Congress and CPM at Chandipur village in Nanoor police station area in Birbhum district, but the police said it had no relation with the strike.
The Trinamool Congress claimed that the person who died was a party worker.
However, trains ran normally on both the Sealdah and Howrah divisions as also the Metro rail as the railways were exempted from the purview of the strike.
Only two flights took off and two others landed at the NSC Bose International Airport.
Strike hits transport in Kerala:
In Kerala, the all-India strike badly hit industrial, commercial and service sectors.
The strike was total in transport sector with buses, trucks, taxis and autorickshaws keeping off the roads, halting the mobility of vast sections of people.
Attendance was thin in government offices and public sector and scheduled banks, where unions supported the strike. The protest also affected functioning of shifts in most factories since last midnight but evoked no response in the IT sector.
All units at the two major IT centres, Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram and Infopark in Kochi, functioned as usual with the companies bringing workers in vehicles in convoy, IT sector sources said.
Essential services like power and water supplies were maintained uninterruptedly throughout the state.
Trains ran as usual but many of the passengers who arrived from other states faced problems in the absence of public transport and shops and restaurants remaining closed.
Schools and colleges went without classes as students and teachers could not reach the institutions for lack public transport. However, private vehicles plied freely in cities and towns.
Police said no untoward incident has been reported from anywhere.
Trade union leaders claimed the response to the strike was spontaneous and total.