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Strike shuts India's technology hub
By agencies
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Monday, 12 February 2007, 18:30 IST
BANGALORE: Bangalore, India's technology hub and the capital of the southern Indian state of Karnataka, has been crippled by a general strike that shut businesses and emptied streets when activists protested against a court verdict over access to river water.
Bangalore is home to about 1,400 leading IT firms and multinationals such as Infosys, Wipro, IBM, Accenture, HP and EDS, employing about 350,000 people in software and BPO services. The city accounted for 36 percent of the country's IT export revenue ($8.3 billion) in the last fiscal (FY 2006). Majority of IT firms and offices had declared a holiday in view of the shutdown and decided to compensate by working on a weekend later.
The strike, on Monday, was provoked by a court ruling this month that awarded an increased the share of water from the Cauvery river to the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu.
Schools and colleges were ordered to shut, shops and businesses closed and taxis, auto-rickshaws, buses and commercial vehicles stayed off the roads as the police patrolled the state to deter trouble. Nearly 20,000 policemen were deployed in Bangalore, where streets were deserted as residents stayed indoors or took a long weekend holiday.
The Cauvery River, which rises in Karnataka and flows into the Bay of Bengal through Tamil Nadu, has been the backbone of irrigation. The river also provides drinking water for the neighboring states of Kerala and Pondicherry. The Cauvery tribunal, set up in 1990, has awarded Tamil Nadu more than half of the Cauvery's water, and Karnataka just over a third, with the rest shared by the two other states.
ATTACK ON CALL CENTER
Angry activists attacked the First Source call centre, a subsidiary of ICICI Bank, for continuing operations during the 12-hour Karnataka shutdown.
The pre-dawn attack by members of the Kannada Rakshane Vedike, agitating against the final award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal that gave only 270 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) water to Karnataka against 419 tmcft to Tamil Nadu, took place at one of the three BPO centres of the firm.
About 40-50 Vedike activists, armed with heavy sticks, Kannada flags and Cauvery banners, barged into the office and shut down the operations, shouting slogans against the company for working on the sly.
"The activists forced the subsidiary to shut the office and ordered the skeletal staff to leave the premises. They also deflated the taxis engaged by the firm to ferry its employees and castigated the drivers for being on duty," police sources said.
Company officials were, however, not available for reaction and attempts to get details on the attack or damage if any drew a blank.
"We are closed today due to a general strike in Karnataka. We will resume service tomorrow," repeated a pre-recorded voice from the BPO centre.
Earlier, teams of Vedike activists fanned out in the wee hours to check whether IT and biotech firms had declared a holiday and remained shut. When a few call/BPO firms were found retaining some of their employees for key services, they were warned of dire consequences.