Bharat Bandh Meets Ambiguity In AP

The 'Bharat Bandh' called by the BJP led National Democratic Alliance on Thursday to protest against hike in diesel price, restricting subsidized LPG and allowing FDI in retail business sector evoked a mixed response in the twin-cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The bandh was partial in other parts of the State.

The bandh was marked by protest rallies, dharnas and road blockades in the state capital and in other parts of the state from the wee hours and the activists locked almost all RTC bus depots in districts forcing it to suspend 4,517 buses across the state. The bandh call evoked a partial response in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam while mixed response in Kadapa, Kurnool, Srikakulam, Karimnagar and Krishna, Guntur, Chittoor and Nellore districts.

Police arrested hundreds of protesters including CPI (M) State Secretary B V Raghavulu, CPI State Secretary K Narayana and Telugu Desam leader T Krishna Reddy among others at several places in Hyderabad after they staged demonstrations at MG Bus Station and Narayaguda terming the UPA -II government's decisions on reforms on diesel, LPG and FDI in retail as 'anti-people' and 'anti-democratic.'

Though trains were running normally in the city and other districts, the RTC was plying less number of buses fearing of attacks on it. The RTC has suspended 300 long distance buses from the state capital causing hardship to commuters. The educational institutions, shops and business establishments voluntarily extended their cooperation to the bandh and remained closed in many locations of the city and across the state. The police made elaborate security arrangements to maintain law and order and also made preventive arrests in Kadapa, Karimnagar and Krishna districts.

In Vishakapatnam, agitators tried to obstruct RTC buses at Gajuwaka, Maddilapalem, Kurmannapalem and other depots in the city. Though the bandh was peaceful, police detained 20 protesters for disrupting vehicular movement and organising road blockades in various places in the city.

The truck operators supported the bandh in protest against the diesel price hike and halted 4 lakh trucks across the State since midnight. In Hyderabad, even a section of auto-rickshaw drivers extended their support to bandh. The universities in the State have put off their academic examinations and rescheduled them in view of the shutdown.

BJP senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu thanked the people of state for making bandh successful by extending voluntary cooperation. He said that the bandh should open the eyes of UPA-II government and it should revoke all its recent decisions. (INN)