With the ruling Left Front governments supporting the strike called to protest against surging inflation and the Centre's "anti-people" economic policies, there was a complete shut down in West Bengal with disruption in air and rail traffic.

The strikers did not spare the vital IT sector in Salt Lake in Kolkata from the purview of the strike. Flights to Kolkata were cancelled due to the strike by airport employees.

While life was paralysed in Kerala, air services remained unaffected in the state.

Inspector General (Law and Order), Raj Kanojia said in Kolkata that no untoward incident was reported from any part of the state but train services were disrupted with protesters squatting on the rail track at several places.

Additional policemen and Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed in the city to maintain law and order, police said.

Airports Authority of India officials said in New Delhi going by the number of flight across the country, the schedules were running "almost normally". Besides flight to Kolkata, some flights to Mumbai were also affected by the strike, they said.

Airport sources said in Kolkata that more than a hundred passengers who came late night yesterday were stranded. While no flight landed, seven flights, including two international ones - British Airways' flight from here to London and Jet Airways' flight from here to Dhaka - took off early Wednesday morning.

AAI officials said some flights to Pune and Guwahati were also cancelled.

As many as 250 Indian Air Force personnel were deployed at 21 airports as part of a contingency plan to maintain critical services in the wake of the strike called by major trade unions barring the Congress-affiliated INTUC.

Opposing any further privatisation or leasing out of airports, hundreds of AAI employees staged a demonstration demanding better pay and job security in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Nagpur airports.

CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta claimed thousands of central government workers from Posts and Telegraph department, defence production sector and ports joined the strike protesting against unfair treatment meted out to them in the Sixth Pay Commission report.

Ports in Kolkata, Haldia and Visakhapatnam were affected by the stir, he said, adding that "complete bandh" was being observed in Jharkhand, Manipur and Assam besides West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.

"We will prolong our agitation if the Congress-led UPA Government does not roll back their anti-people policies after today's strike," CITU President M K Pandhe said.

Dasgupta said several hundred protesting trade unionists and farmers were arrested in Assam and Orissa.

Flights cancelled as employees' strike hits IGI

Six flights, mostly bound for Kolkata, were cancelled on Wednesday as airport employees went on a 12-hour strike on the issues of privatisation of government-owned airports and wages.

Their stir is in support of the country-wide general strike-call given by the Central Public Sector Trade Unions (CPSTU).

Two Jet Airways flights bound for Kolkata and Mumbai while one flight each of Indigo, SpiceJet, Deccan and JetLite were cancelled due to the strike.

Passengers travelling to Kolkata, Guwahati and Pune faced problems at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in New Delhi due to cancellation of flights.

Hundreds of Airport Authority employees staged a demonstration at domestic, International and Cargo terminals at the airport demanding a better pay, job security of the AAI employees in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Nagpur airports.

The Airport Authority Employees' Union (AAEU), under which all airport employees have gone on strike, has been demanding no further privatisation or leasing out of other AAI airports in the country.