Kadapa district bandh, called by Samaikyandhra JAC, was peaceful and total on Tuesday.
Shops and business establishments, hotels, cinema theatres, petrol pumps, Central government offices, banks and educational institutions were closed in Kadapa and other towns. Auto-rickshaws remained off the road. Government employees, teachers and APSRTC workers went round the city and enforced bandh. United State agitators K.V. Siva Reddy, S. Goverdhan Reddy, Ramamurthy Naidu, Kumar and others monitored the bandh.
Meanwhile, employees and teachers took out a rally holding a 300-metre-long national flag in Veerapunayunipalle and formed a five-km-long human chain on either side of the road. Nearly 4,000 IIIT students rallied from Idupulapaya to Sri Veeranjaneya Swamy temple at Gandi in Chakrayapet mandal and offered prayers, seeking united State.
Tirupati Staff Reporter adds: Responding to the bandh call given by the APNGOs, Samaikyandhra supporters in the city organised protests in their distinctive styles to express their disagreement on the decision to divide the State.
Equipped with traditional musical instruments, members of Tirupati Cloth Merchants’ Association and tailors took out a rally from NTR circle to MCT office, here on Tuesday. As a form of protest, tailors stitched clothes using their sewing machines in the middle of the road.
They later took part in the relay hunger strike organised by Tirupati Samaikyandhra JAC (SAPS). Extending their support to the BC-JAC protest camp, members of Tirumala-Tirupati Valmiki Welfare Association organised a rally from Sri Valmiki Maharshi circle.
Blocking the road with water drums near Tirupati over-bridge, PCC joint Secretary P. Naveen Kumar Reddy maintained that the agitations would go on till the bifurcation decision was withdrawn.
Chittoor Staff Reporter adds: The APNGOs Association-sponsored bandh in support of Samaikyandhra was total and went of peacefully in Chittoor and Madanapalle divisions.
Curfew-like situation prevailed in Chittoor town for about 12 hours since morning with bandh organisers, under the banner of Samaikhya Rashtra Parirakshana Vedika, blocking all arterial junctions, not even allowing auto-rickshaws and two-wheelers.
On the outskirts, frenzied mobs stopped auto-rickshaws and pelted stones at a couple of vehicles. All the educational institutions, business establishments and banks voluntarily downed their shutters, on which bandh notice pamphlets were pasted. However, medical shops and hospitals were exempted from the bandh.
At Kuppam constituency, sandwiched between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the bandh was total, with thousands of Telugu Desam Party cadres taking to streets and joining the APNGOs Association in organising the bandh.
Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on both side of the constituency. In view of the bandh, private transporters from Bangalore, Kolar and Mulabagal in Karnataka, and Jollarpettai, Vellore and Salem in Tamil Nadu stalled their operations till the next one week.
At Madanapalle, the bandh organisers attacked an educational institution and pulled down flexes, broke flowerpots and ransacked the office, for running the classes despite the bandh call till September 30.
Kurnool Special Correspondent adds: In response to the bandh call given by Samaikyandhra JAC, the city observed bandh on Tuesday. It was enforced by Joint Action Committee of Employees (JAC) and YSR Congress party.
Banks, which functioned till noon, were closed after the protesters approached and asked them to cooperate. The protesters staged a rasta roko at Chennamma circle and disrupted the traffic for a long time. A scuffle ensued between the police and protesters when the former asked them to clear the way.
The members of Teachers’ JAC formed four teams to enforce bandh at Bellary Crossroads, C. Camp, Old City and Prakash Nagar. The employees of Irrigation Department took out a bike rally in support of the bandh from the office.
The supporters of YSR Congress led by S.V. Mohan Reddy, Balaraju and other leaders staged a demonstration and tried to enforce the bandh.
Nellore Staff Reporter adds: The bandh call given by Samaikyandhra JAC evoked good response as shops and business establishments downed their shutters and vehicles stayed off road in Nellore on Tuesday.
The APNGOs Nellore unit, under the leadership of its president P. Ravindhra Babu, held a rasta roko programme on the national highway in which a large number of teachers and students participated. The traffic was disrupted for over three hours.
The NGOs along with Samaikya activists came into the city in a rally and enforced the bandh.
The bandh was also observed in rural towns like Nayudupeta, Tada, Venkatagiri and Atmakur.
Vikrama Simhapuri University employees and students’ JAC held protest demonstrations in which the JAC honorary president M. Srinivasulu Reddy took part.
