The bandh observed in the city on Wednesday to protest against bifurcation of the state was total and peaceful. A Home Guard of Vizianagaram district who consumed pesticide, upset over bifurcation of the state, died at the King George Hospital here on Wednesday morning.
Main roads wore a deserted look as most of the schools and other educational institutions declared a holiday. Representatives of various groups advocating the cause of an integrated state held protest at various junctions in the city expressing their ire at the Congress president and the ‘failure’ of the Seemandhra MP s and MLA s in convincing the Congress leadership on the need to keep the State united.
Samaikhyandhra Student JAC leaders, who launched an indefinite hunger strike at Andhra University campus on Tuesday evening, continued with their agitation on Wednesday also. Leaders of Congress and YSR Congress parties called on the fasting leaders and expressed their solidarity.
Students took out a rally to the Main Gate of the university. They raised slogans and held up traffic on the main road.
The police, who were deployed in large numbers on the campus, had a tough time in preventing the situation from going out of control.
Some of the student leaders were arrested.
Andhra University Vice-Chancellor GSN Raju appealed to the students and JAC leaders to conduct their protest in a peaceful manner. MLAs Panchakarla Ramesh Babu, Malla Vijay Prasad, Congress leaders Behara Bhaskar Rao and Pedada Ramani Kumari were among those who called on the fasting leaders.
YSR Congress leader Vamsikrishna Yadav alleged that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had divided the state with the ‘selfish motto’ of seeing her son Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister in 2014 General Elections.
Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation Employees Union State leaders Valisetty Damodar and SVB Rajendra Prasad warned that they were ready to call a bandh in all the 13 districts in Seemandhra to protect the interests of the people of the region.
The union leaders held a meeting on Wednesday on the future course of action in view of the division of the state. Mr. Damodar said that the RTC staff would organise black badge protest from Thursday and on the next day protest would be held by RTC employees in all the 13 districts.
A rally was taken out by MLA s and others from Jagadamba junction to Poorna Market.
MLA s Dronamraju Srinivas, Malla Vijay Prasad and Panchakarla Ramesh Babu, PCC general secretary S.A. Rehaman, city Congress president Behara Bhaskara Rao, and Mahila Congress leader Pedada Ramani Kumari were among those who attended.
They sought a firm assurance on the sharing of river waters, education and health, special package for Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. They threatened to intensify the agitation
Members of the Visakhapatnam Bar Association condemned bifurcation of the State and on Wednesday they went round the court premises holding banners demanding that the Government keep the State unified.
The advocates would continue to boycott the court work till August 2 and on Thursday would take out a rally from the District Court complex to Jagadamba junction where they will form a human chain.
Doctors’ support
The AP Government Doctors Association (Andhra Region) would support the struggle by students and others against bifurcation of the State, its secretary P. Shyam Sundar said.
He appealed to all doctors, paramedical staff and employees of PHCs and Vaidya Vidhana Parishad to support the struggle for a unified Andhra.
