The ministry's drive had been aimed at coming up with innovative ideas to improve the Indian Railways. The strike has been called to protest the Central government's 'anti-labour' and 'anti-people' policies
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With 10 central trade unions and the Shiv Sena-affiliated Bhartiya Kamgar Sena in Maharashtra joining the nationwide strike on Wednesday, railway employees too are giving it back to the Railway Ministry by organising a 'Rail Bachao Sangoshti' to counter the ministry's Rail Parivartan Sangoshti.
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The ministry's drive had been aimed at coming up with innovative ideas to improve the Indian Railways. The strike has been called to protest the Central government's 'anti-labour' and 'anti-people' policies.
Train services and airport operations may get affected if the strike takes an aggressive turn. However, officials assured that suburban services would run as usual and outstation trains being affected would be a worst-case scenario. Though taxi and autorickshaw drivers have said they will function normally. Apart from transport, banking services are also likely to be hit. Nearly 25 crore people are expected to join the protest.
About 60 organisations of students and of elected office-bearers of some universities are joining the strike to raise their voice against increased fees and the commercialisation of education.
However, students' unions which were planning agitations in support of the strike rolled back their protest plans. Suvarna Salve, a member of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) for Social Justice, Mumbai, said, "We will make Bharat Bandh a success by creating awareness among people. Cease work for a day as we support the trade unions' strike."
Aadesh Bansode from the Lokshahi Yuva Sanghatna, one of the participating trade unions said, "The government has rolled back the 44 labour laws and are going to introduce four codes instead. These codes are completely anti-labour. We are against these anti-labour codes and other issues such as inflation, unemployment, CAA and NRC."
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