Mumbai, July 4 (IANS) At least 86 domestic flights were cancelled to and from Mumbai in view of the nationwide shutdown Monday, officials said.

While 46 outgoing flights of various private airlines were cancelled due to poor response as passengers could not reach the domestic airport, another 40 incoming flights from all over India were also cancelled for the day.

The usually bustling Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), one of the busiest in the country, wore a near-deserted look as pre-paid and metered taxis and autorickshaws remained off the roads.

Kingfisher Airlines attempted to salvage the situation and combined several of its flights. These include IT-2403 Bangalore-Chennai with IT-4612; IT-2404 Chennai-Bangalore with IT-2406; IT-101 Mumbai-Bangalore with IT-103; and IT-102 Bangalore-Mumbai with IT-104, an official said.

The Mumbai International Airport Ltd, the company which manages the CSIA, arranged with the BEST to provide 20 buses from the domestic terminal and six from the international terminal to transport passengers to various destinations in the city.

Besides, it also arranged for four coaches to ferry stranded passengers to nearest suburban railway stations like Andheri and Vile Parle, an official said.

Large parts of the city and suburbs remained closed during the opposition-sponsored shutdown to protest the price hike of fuel products and other essential items.

Stray incidents of violence, road and rail blocks, stone-pelting of public and private vehicles marred the otherwise peaceful start to the shutdown Monday morning in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra, police and civil officials said.

Most schools, colleges, private offices, malls, multiplexes and other establishments did not open Monday as a precautionary measure, while most government offices reported thin attendance.

Last week, the central government ended government curbs on petroleum pricing and hiked the prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas.

The price of diesel went up by Rs.2 a litre, kerosene by Rs.3 a litre, petrol by Rs.3.50 a litre, and cooking gas by Rs.35 per cylinder.

Woman loses Malaysian citizenship as name in India voters' list 

Kuala Lumpur, July 5 (IANS) A Malaysia-born woman has become stateless after her citizenship was cancelled on the ground that her name appeared in a voter registration list in India.

Mageswari Koothan, 52, said she had never registered as a voter nor voted in India. She cannot get a job here, nor can she return to India to be with her family.

She has appealed for intervention by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to end eight years of misery.

"While the government has revoked my citizenship, India's home ministry stamped my passport for overstaying and granted me a one-way exit to leave the country in 2004," The Star newspaper quoted her as saying Monday.

In 2002, Mageswari received a notice from the Malaysian National Registration Department telling her that she was no longer a Malaysian after it found she was registered as a voter in India.

She stayed in India after marrying an Indian national at 16, but has been returning to Malaysia regularly.

Her troubles began when she wanted to renew her passport in 1989 at the Malaysian High Commission in India.

She was informed her documents had to be sent to Malaysia for renewal and 13 years later she received the citizenship revocation notice.

"This is indeed perplexing. As a Malaysian citizen, how could I have registered as a voter in India?" asked Mageswari.

After numerous appeals, she finally received a letter from the home ministry in 2004, telling her that she could come back to Malaysia to attend an inquiry on her citizenship.

When she arrived here, her passport was confiscated at the airport, and a few months after the inquiry she received her new MyKad, the Malaysian identity card.

"The immigration department informed me that I would be able to get back my passport in 2008, after being suspended for three years since I overstayed in India," said Mageswari.

She assumed everything was okay until she received another letter from the department in 2008 stating that her citizenship had been revoked again.

"Now I am stateless, and I have not seen my children and husband since I came here in 2002."

She is one among the 1.7 million ethnic Indians who have made Malaysia their home.