T Bandh Flops In City, Partial In Districts

The bandh called for in Telangana by the Opposition parties on Saturday in protest against the TRS government's "attitude towards the suicides of farmers" in the State evoked some response in the districts, but failed in Hyderabad.

Almost all the Opposition parties - the Congress, TDP, BJP, Left Parties and YSR Congress - participated in the bandh demanding that the State government waive off the remaining part of the farmers' crop loans that the TRS government had committed to waiving off, immediately, and initiate steps to prevent farmers' suicides.

The Chamber of Commerce also extended its support to the Opposition-sponsored bandh.

On account of the State bandh, buses were confined to the depots as the Opposition leaders staged sit-ins in front of the depots since the early morning. There were disturbances in the bus traffic in the Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Warangal, Khammam, Rangareddy, Hyderabad and Medak districts. Two unidentified miscreants damaged the glass panes of two RTC buses at Abids in the heart of the State capital in the morning though the police had deployed heavy forces.

The police resorted to arresting the Opposition Parties' leaders everywhere across the State to foil the bandh. Those arrested included TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy, Greater Hyderabad Congress Committee chief Danam Nagender, TPCC former chief Ponnala Laxmaiah, former MP Anjan Kumar Yadav and CPI national secretary Dr K Narayana at the Hyderabad MGBS where they had staged a dharna. They were later shifted to the Goshamahal Police Station.

The police also detained Telangana TDP leaders L Ramana, Errabelli Dayakar Rao and Revanth Reddy, BJP leaders Dr K Lakshman and Chintala Ramachandra Reddy, and Congress leader Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy at the Secunderabad Jubilee Bus Station.