The one-day bandh called by traders of 13 Seemandhra districts under the banner of Samaikyandhra Parirakshana Vartaka Vanijya JAC, in protest against the proposed bifurcation of the State, received mixed response in the city here on Friday.
While some traders spontaneously enforced the bandh call, a few closed down after they were goaded to do so by the association members and a few defied the call saying that they have lost enough business in the last few days due to the agitation.
The maximum impact of the bandh was seen in the One Town area, where it was almost a total closure of shops. Even major showrooms and malls on Bandar and Eluru Road remained closed, while a few closed down for a brief period, as a symbolic gesture.
In Krishna district there are about 72 traders associations, and almost all of them have joined the call, , said the Vijayawada Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) general secretary and JAC convenor V. Bhaskara Rao.
This is just the beginning, we are having a meeting at Guntur on September 2, to decide the future course of action, he said.
According to Mr. Bhaskara Rao, the bifurcation will create a lot of problem for the trading community. “The leaders of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) took the decision in haste without giving a detailed look into the problems that various communities would be facing,” he said.
He further pointed out that traders from Andhra region will have to pay an additional CST between 4.5 per cent to 17.5 per cent for all goods and raw material imported from Hyderabad, in the event of bifurcation.
In Masula
The ‘Bandh’ call given by the members of Samaikyandhra Joint Action Committee in Machilipatnam to support the ongoing protests received a mixed response. The JAC members had to stop the vehicular movement on the roads as many auto-rickshaws continued to ply their services.
A few groups such as staff of the zilla parishad, government hospital, Machilipatnam municipality and government teachers joined the bandh by taking up different modes of protests and processions. All the hotels, snacks shops and educational institutions remained shutdown , in support of the movement for the United Andhra Pradesh.
Machilipatnam Municipal Commissioner S. Sivarama Krishna, who sat on a strike recently, joined the scavengers and cleaned the streets on Friday.
A huge gathering of zilla parishad employees took out a rally from Laxmi Theatre to Koneru Centre, where they formed a human chain and raised slogans.
The JAC members also appealed to the police personnel deployed in the town to allow them to intensify their protests.
