Protests erupt over Telangana; two end lives, buses damaged

Mangalore Today/DHNS

HYDERABAD,Aug 1, 2013: In a fallout of the likely creation of Telangana state, two people committed suicide, public and private properties and buses were damaged.

 Statues of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi were desecrated in the Seemandhra region during the one-day bandh on Wednesday organised by the Andhra Joint Action Committee protesting against the division of the state.

A student jumped from a cellphone tower in Guntur on late Tuesday night, a home guard of Vizianagaram district consumed pesticide in Visakhapatnam and ended his life.

The police thwarted efforts of students trying to immolate themselves in Anantapur.
Agitated youth turned Anantapuram town into a battleground by enforcing bandh from early hours of the day. Thousands gathered on the streets and pelted stones at buses, burnt tyres and ransacked the Mandal revenue office, party offices of the Congress and the BJP.

They burnt tyres around the neck of a Rajiv Gandhi statue in the middle of the town and brought it down. Agitators burnt effigies of Sonia Gandhi in several places and manhandled SP Syamsundar who was trying to pacify them. The police resorted to several rounds of cane charge and arrested a few JAC leaders.

In response to the bandh call, shops, business establishments and other commercial houses, including theatres, remained shut in Seemandhra, particularly  Krishna, West Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Kadapa, and Anantapur districts.

Buses in various depots in all the districts of the region did not come out as the staff refused to work. With the buses off the road, including the inter-state and inter-district services, passengers were stranded at various bus places in the region. Bus drivers refused to ply the buses between the Tirupathi town and Tirumala hills.

Though educational institutions declared a holiday, the students, including a large number girls, took to the streets and organised rasta roko and formed human chains in various towns in the districts.

The students also prevented the plying of long distance buses and autorickshaws.
The students staged dharna before the residences of Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders in various districts. Yielding to the demand of the students, TDP legislator from Hindupur Abdul Ghani submitted his resignation.

The residence of Union Minister for Textiles K Sambasiva Rao in Eluru of West Godavari district also became the target of attack by the agitators who sat on dharna and raised slogans demanding his resignation.

The workers of the jute mill in the town boycotted their duties and joined the protest rallies. In Kadapa, the workers of the thermal power project also stayed away from their duties. In Anantapur, on the borders of Karnataka, truck drivers refused to move their oil tankers in solidarity with the agitators.

Even as the people in the Seemandhra have taken to the streets protesting against bifurcation of the state, the ministers from the region had called on Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy at the camp office and deliberated upon their future course of action.

They seemed determined to resign but were advised not to take any drastic action at this stage. Unhappy over the Congress decision to carve out separate Telangana state, Congress MP from Guntur, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, has resigned both from the party and the Lok Sabha.

Congress legislator P Satish Kumar, who represents the Mummidivaram constituency in East Godavari district, also sent his resignation to Assembly Speaker N Manohar.