Over the past two decades, Manipur and Assam have reeled under a bandh culture that has robbed the states of several thousand crores of rupees and posed problems for the common man. Now both states have decided to fight the menace, which had its genesis in 1979-85, following a students’ movement against Bangladeshi infiltrators.

While the Manipur Government has decided to take on bandh organisers by filing civil suits against them and recover the losses incurred, the common man in Assam has formed citizens’ groups to oppose the culture.

The Manipur Cabinet has declared bandhs as illegal and a panel of four lawyers has been constituted to consider legal action against bandh organisers in the state. A rough official estimate has put the total loss incurred by Manipur due to bandhs from 2004 to 2007 at about Rs 1,320 crore.

While in 2004-05, 53 bandhs had paralysed public life across Manipur and 81 highway blockades had stopped supply of essential goods to the state incurring a loss of 246 crore, during 2005-06, it recorded 48 bandhs and 97 days of highway blockades with a loss of Rs 521crore.

In Assam the opposition against bandhs has been growing with each passing day.“One is really amazed to find the number of letters the common man has been writing to newspapers against bandhs. After all it is the common man who is harassed, whether he is a daily-wage labourer or a college student,” says Amiya Sharma, a renowned economist who has been studying the impact of bandhs in the state for the past decade.

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