Dang, August 4:

Life in the Tharuhat region was paralysed today due to a day-long general strike called by the Tharuhat Joint Struggle Committee (TJSC). The committee said the strike was organised to protest Vice-President Paramananda Jha’s act of taking the oath of office and secrecy in Hindi.

Tharuhat Joint Struggle Committee coordinator Laxman Tharu threatened to launch a decisive agitation. The strike has hit Deukhuri of Dang district hard. Educational and health institutes were closed. Vehicular movement came to a halt in Ghorahi, the district headquarters of Dang.

Vehicles stayed off the Chandranigahapur-Gaur section of the Birendra Highway and the East-West highway, a report from Rautahat said. Government offices, financial organisations and markets remained shut, while agitators brought vehicular movement to a halt in different points of the East-West highway and Birendra highway.

Vehicular movement came to a halt also in Krishnanagar, Chandrauta, Taulihawa, Khunuwa, Chakarac-hauda, Lawani, Jitpur, Gorusinge and Bahadurgunj of Kapilvastu district.

Markets were shut in these areas. The strike hit life hard in Inaruwa, Duhabi, Jhumka, Khanar,

Bhokraha, Bhantabari and the Koshi barrage area of Sunsari district. Bandh organisers organised rallies and burnt tyres in these places. They vandalised a motorcycle in Duhabi, accusing the motorcyclist of defying the strike.

According to the Area Police Office Biratnagar, Tharuhat activists were obstructing vehicular movement in Saptari Kalyanpur, Bakaduwa, Kadamaha Chowk and Jandol along the East-West highway. They brought vehicular movement to a halt in front of the Balaji Petrol Pump in Lahan of Siraha district. Shops were shut in Jhapa’s Bhadrapur, Chandragadhi and Kakadbhitta.

In Udaypur district, industries, factories were shut, while vehicles stayed off the roads. The agitators vandalised three motorcycles in Deuri and Jaljale bazaars for defying the strike.

Effect of the strike was also felt in Nawalparasi, Rupandehi, Banke Bardiya, Kailahi and Kanchanpur districts.