A shutdown called by Left parties against the controversial land bill and corruption affected road and rail traffic in Bihar on Tuesday.Normal life was also hit in some rural and urban pockets of the state where the parties wield influence, officials and witnesses said. The shutdown was called by, among others, the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (Liberation).Besides the land bill, they also protested against the alleged involvement of BJP ministers and BJP chief ministers of Rajasthan as well as Madhya Pradesh in alleged corruption and wrongdoing.Thousands of slogan-shouting Left activists took to the streets shouting slogans against the Narendra Modi government.
They squatted on rail tracks and halted several trains in Darbhanga, Madhubani, Siwan, Ara, Sheikhpura, Patna, Gaya, Araria and Jehanabad districts, officials said.Road traffic was hit in Patna, Jehanabad, Gaya, Darbhanga and Ara in particular, a police official said. "Our protest was against the anti-farmer, anti-people policies of the Modi government," CPI-ML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya told the media here.Police said more than 700 Left activists were arrested during the shutdown across the state.