Life came to a standstill as the State capital observed a near total bandh on Tuesday, the first day of the 48-hour Telangana shutdown called by protagonists of separate Telangana.
Normal life was disrupted as authorities withdrew public transport facilities fearing attacks by bandh enforcers, while private business establishments, banks, education institutions, cinemas, malls and fuel stations remained closed. Supporters claimed it to be a total success on day one, but it was the common man and the daily wager earner who had to bear the brunt. In the old city, the bandh call evoked a mixed response. The bandh was by and large peaceful, barring incidents of clashes between the police and agitating students on Osmania University campus. Police took into custody 372 agitators at different places in the city. “Specific cases are being registered against them depending on the gravity of the mischief,” a city police spokesman said in a statement.
In New Nagole agitators damaged the windows of a private college building which was functioning. A few girl students were reportedly injured. Schools and other educational institutions had declared holidays in advance but it was the office-goers and commuters who faced a lot of inconvenience. The entire fleet of 3,300 city buses did not ply for the entire day and a major part of 60,000 autorickshaws too remained off the roads. The South Central Railway (SCR) too cancelled over 30 MMTS services on the Secunderabad-Falaknuma route.
Commuters stranded
The daily commuter had to mostly depend on a few SETWIN services or on those enterprising autorickshaw drivers who brought out their vehicles on to the roads. But it was the commuter who was forced to shell out a lot of money to travel even short distances.
Passengers arriving into the city at railway and bus stations were caught off guard. Taking advantage of the situation, auto-rickshaw drivers fleeced them by demanding exorbitant fares. “It costs about Rs.50 to reach Begumpet from Secunderabad but today auto drivers demanded Rs.80. There was no option but to pay,” fumed Rajavardhan Reddy, a commuter at Secunderabad railway station. Mahatma Gandhi and Jubilee Bus stations wore a deserted look with buses being confined to depots. In all, only 44 buses were operated in the Telangana region and nearly 11,853 buses were cancelled.
Transport hit badly
“We were willing to operate a few buses but pro-Telangana employees in the corporation did not attend to their duties forcing us to curtail operations,” said a senior RTC official. Two city buses were partially damaged by RTC employees at Miyapur depot, when authorities tried to operate them late in the evening. Public transport organisations, including APSRTC and railways, suffered huge revenue losses due to the bandh. While the SCR incurred losses of over Rs.1 lakh for cancelling MMTS trains on Secunderabad-Falaknuma route, the RTC suffered over Rs. 9 crore losses.
Situation appears to be bleak even for Wednesday with the authorities yet to decide on operating the services. “We cannot take any risk. We will study the situation and then take a decision,” said an RTC official.
