Bharat Bandh: Near total strike in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 27 (IANS) After the ruling Left and the Opposition Congress joined hands to support the agitating farmers, Kerala is seeing a total shutdown on Monday morning.Markets, shops, establishments and offices are closed and so are all the public vehicles. Baring private vehicles, everything in the state has come to a complete standstill.After the support from the political parties, the civil society has also lent its support to the agitating farmers. The result of this was that people have preferred to remain indoors. Incidentally, on account of the state and the country observing Covid protocols for the past 18 months, Monday's protest is the first political shutdown that Kerala is witnessing.However, like on any shutdown day, the ISRO units are all functioning and its employees are being taken to the respective units in the state capital in their buses with armed security.All university examinations scheduled for Monday have been postponed.However, criticism has also come as Kerala deciding to observe the shutdown comes on World Tourism Day, when the entire state and tourism activities are closed.
--IANS sg/dpb