Normal life is likely to be affected on Thursday with city buses, autorickshaws going off the road and commercial establishments, including malls shutting their operations as part of the Telangana bandh call given by the TRS.
Many private schools and college managements have declared a holiday on Thursday to avoid inconvenience to their students. Theatre owners are also likely to cancel morning shows.
Though the South Central Railway (SCR) has decided to operate all the MMTS, local and long-distance trains as per schedule, reaching offices can be a challenge for many employees and others with RTC employees and autorickshaw unions also extending their support to the bandh.
Protests would be held at different locations, said Auto Drivers Samakhya secretary A. Sathi Reddy.All the 3,500-odd city buses would be confined to their respective depots and employees would stage demonstrations in front of the bus depots. Buses to be operated to different districts from Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station and Jubilee Bus Station would also be cancelled, said RTC Employees Union Telangana Wing chairman S. Babu.
Students of Osmania University clashed with the police when the latter prevented them from taking out a rally against the proposed Rayala Telangana on Wednesday.
Students belonging to all unions and groups took out a rally from Arts College heading to Assembly, but were stopped at the NCC gate by the police leading to clashes. Students burnt tyres and threw stones at the police.
However, the police maintained restraint and persuaded the students to go back. The students raised slogans and said they would not accept anything less than 10-district Telangana with Hyderabad as the capital.
Police took six students into custody and released them later.