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The opposition parties reacted in contrasting ways with the main opposition Trinamul Congress on Saturday threatening protest agitations against the ruling Left Front's decision even as state Congress president Pranab Mukherjee supported the move.
Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee has approved the official notification.
State Home Secretary Amit Kiran Deb told newspersons that agitations like 'rail rokos' and 'rasta rokos' would henceforth be treated as punishable offences and dealt with under the Railways Act, Indian Penal Code, Motor Vehicles Act, West Bengal Roads Act and the Calcutta Police Act.
The notification expressed concern at the manner in which agitations were held and urged all sections of the people to desist from organising them.
Such agitations, made the people at large, children, students, office-goers, the aged, patient and others face a critical situation, which should be avoided.
It said such agitations were contrary to democratic rights and human rights.
On the issue of 'strike', the home secretary said a decision would be taken only after discussing the matter with all political parties.
Flaying the decision, Trinamul chief Mamata Banerjee said even though her party was against any move that caused public harassment, 'it is highly reprehensible that people's democratic rights are sought to be curbed by law'.
She said the Trinamul Congress would decide its protest against the 'undemocratic decision'.
State Congress chief Pranab Mukherjee hailed the state government's decision to ban rail and road blockades during any movement on local issues that caused tremendous inconvenience to the travelling public.
Kolkata Mayor Subrata Mukherjee, a Trinamul Congress MLA, opposed the government's decision stating that protest movements should not be confined to issuing statements only.
Naxalite faction CPI (ML-Liberation) and the Left opposition Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) described the government's decision as 'undemocratic'.
The CPI (ML-Liberation) threatened to launch law-violation movement across the state on January four to protest the 'undemocratic' decision.
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