PATNA: A daylong shutdown observed by Bihar’s main Opposition party RJD in protest against the government’s new sand mining policy hit the normal flow of life in the state on Thursday as most roads were blocked and trains were forcibly halted by the demonstrators.
At least two sick people being rushed to hospitals died on the way because their ambulances were stuck in the massive traffic jam caused due to the shutdown. Thousands of people were stranded at bus-stands and railway stations, facing untold miseries caused by the disrupted transport services.
Relatives of a critically ill woman from Mahnar in Vaishali district, Somari Devi, 35, said she died in the ambulance before reaching Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH). The ambulance could not reach Mahatma Gandhi Setu, the bridge across the Ganga connecting north Bihar to Patna, as RJD supporters protested on the road in thousands.
In Katihar, a middle-aged man, Santosh Sah, died in the ambulance as it failed to reach the hospital due to traffic jam caused by the bandh supporters. “The state government is responsible for this untimely death. The state government must be punished,” cried Manorama Devi, an inconsolable relative of Sah, who had suffered a heart attack.
RJD leaders, however, were indifferent to these deaths. “Our supporters did not stop ambulances anywhere. Do deaths occur due to bandhs? There are other reasons. The media should focus on deaths taking place in hospitals due to negligence,” said RJD national vice-president and former Union minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.
Bihar health minister Mangal Pandey of BJP squarely blamed RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav for the deaths of people due to traffic jams caused by the shutdown. “RJD’s shutdown is reminiscent of the terror unleashed by the party in Bihar a decade and a half ago. They organised the bandh despite the government resolving the issue of sand mining a day ago,” said Pandey.
The RJD chief’s two sons – Leader of Opposition Tejaswi Yadav and former health minister Tej Pratap Yadav – came out on Patna’s streets to lead bandh supporters. They were detained by police.
“The Nitish Kumar-led government’s policies are anti-poor and anti-worker. The government has also no regard for the rulings of the Supreme Court and Patna High Court on sand mining,” said Tejaswi Yadav, vowing to continue the protests till the government withdraws the “anti-people provisions” in the new sand mining policy.
RJD went ahead with the shutdown as per pre-scheduled plans even though the government on Wednesday eased the restrictions imposed on lifting of sand and decided to lease the closed sand mines as per the old rules.