The bandh call given by Samaikyandhra activists was partial and peaceful in the city on Friday. The programmes conducted by the activists demanding that the state be kept united were nominal. Shop-keepers and traders downed shutters in some areas in the city in response to the requests of the activists in One Town. While some corporate schools and colleges remained closed most of the Government schools functioned normally.
Samaikyandhra Political JAC district chairman Kolanukonda Sivaji and his followers went around One Town and Two Town requesting traders and shop keepers to down their shutters.
Human chain
The city and outstation buses plied normally because the activists did not obstruct RTC services.
Vijayawada Parliamentary constituency Youth Congress Samaikyandhra president Devineni Avinash and his supporters took out a rally from Patamata circle to Gandhiji Mahila Kalasala in One Town and participated in the formation of a human chain in the women’s college campus.
He also performed abhishekam to the Telugu Thalli statue near the Tummalapalli Kalakshetram.
The mood was belligerent in the A.P.N.G.O Home in Gandhinagar. Several leaders and members of the NGO Association gathered there to express their opposition to the division of the State to electronic media that gave live telecast to the ire. The NGO association members said that lakhs of NGOs would go on lightening strike if the Central Government decided in favour of division of the State. There were unresolved issues like the safety of over a lakh Seemandhra employees working in Hyderabad. The sharing of water for irrigation and problems the farmers would face if the State was divided.
The leader said the patience of the Seemandhra people was being misunderstood by the Central Government.
The Bharatiya Janata Party in a statement said that the bandh call given by Samaikyandhra activists was a total flop.
Bandh peaceful
The bandh evoked good response. Students and activists of various people’s organisations took to the streets in anticipation of an announcement by Congress Committee in favour of formation of the separate State. Business establishments and educational institutions were closed.
