January 21, 2026 Times of Dakshin Dinajpur
Left Unions Step Up Grassroots Mobilization in Dakshin Dinajpur for Feb 12 Strike
Kamal Kumar Biswas.TOD.Gangarampur
Stepping up pressure ahead of a nationwide general strike scheduled for February 12, mass organizations affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) mounted a four-hour sit-in protest on Wednesday at the busy High Road Chowpathi crossing in Gangarampur and Balurghat thana more.The demonstration, held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., brought together the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the All India Kisan Sabha, the All India Agricultural Workers Union and the West Bengal Slum Development Association. The protest served as a coordinated mobilization drive to galvanize public support for the impending all-India shutdown.
Protesters sharply denounced what they described as a sustained policy assault on workers, peasants and the urban poor. Central among their demands were the repeal of what they termed “anti-labour” labour codes, the scrapping of the new seed policy alleged to undermine farmers’ rights, and the guarantee of remunerative prices for agricultural produce.The demonstrators also called for the immediate restoration and expansion of the rural employment guarantee scheme—demanding its extension from 100 to 200 days—along with a statutory daily wage of ₹600 for agricultural labourers. Additional demands included an immediate halt to slum evictions without rehabilitation and compensation, and a full waiver of electricity charges for economically weaker households consuming up to 200 units of power.
Addressing the gathering, union leaders urged workers, farmers and marginalized communities to ensure the “complete success” of the February 12 general strike, portraying it as a decisive confrontation against what they characterized as neoliberal governance and corporate-friendly state policy.Among those present were Anup Kumar Deb, convenor of the CITU Gangarampur Block Coordination Committee; Manindra Nath Sarkar, local secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha; Subir Kumar Das, district secretary of the Agricultural Workers Union; and Shankar Sharma, district secretary of the Slum Development Association, along with several other senior activists.With rhetoric sharpened and mobilization intensifying, the Left’s mass organizations signaled that the February 12 strike would be positioned as a critical flashpoint in their broader campaign against economic precarity and social exclusion.
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