Lukewarm Response To Bandh In City

Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday was arrested at Ameerpet where he was staging a demonstration against the government over the hike in fuel prices.

Scores of TDP activists were taken into custody along with the TDP president, and shifted to the Banjara Hills police station.

Naidu then staged a dharna in front of the police station immediately after he was released on personal bond.

The TDP chief said that his arrest was part of the government's plans to foil legitimate opposition to its anti-people policies. Naidu told media persons that neither the central government nor the state government was hardly bothered about the plight of the people.

Naidu also said that the fuel prices in the state were higher than in any other state.

Meanwhile, CPI state secretary K Narayana, too, was taken into custody during a protest at the busy RTC crossroads. The BJP state unit president G Kishan Reddy was also put under house arrest as a pre-emptive measure, early in the morning.

The police took Narayana into custody after he resorted to squatting on the road. The CPI activists too lay down on the roads, disrupting traffic.

The police swooped on the protestors and whisked them off to the police station where they were released on personal sureties shortly afterwards.

Meanwhile, reports coming in from the various districts suggest that the Bharat Bandh was met with varying degrees of success.

In Srikakulam, senior TDP leader Yerrannaidu led the protest on a rickshaw, urging people to support the bandh. A band playing music followed his rickshaw.

Yerrannaidu claimed that the bandh was a total success in the district.

In Karimnagar, police took around 100 TDP activists into custody from the Bus Stand Junction, while they were protesting against the government. Among those arrested were party leaders G Kamalakar and Vijayarama Rao, and CPI India leader Venkat Reddy.

Activists of the TDP, supported by the Left activists, managed to disrupt bus services in Khammam, Nalgonda, Rangareddy and Kadapa districts, by staging dharnas at bus depots.

According to reports coming in, services of around 700 buses from 9 depots in Rajahmundry were called off following the opposition parties' stoppage of buses from plying earlier in the day.

The bandh had no impact on train services, though. According to South Central Railways, there were no reports of any disruption of train services till mid-afternoon.

Banks remained open in Hyderabad, while all schools, colleges and universities had already declared a holiday for Monday.

All scheduled examinations of the Osmania University had already been postponed till further notice.

Meanwhile, Hyderabad Police Commissioner A K Khan said that no untoward incident had been reported from any part of the city during the bandh.

Courtesy: INN News