The bandh called by separate Telangana organisations in Hyderabad seeking division of the State received a good response on Friday with almost all the business establishments and offices remaining shut. However, life in the old city was normal. No untoward incident was reported anywhere in the twin cities.
The assertion by Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhara Rao that today's bandh was going to be the last shut down call and that pro-Telangana organisations would not be calling for bandhs in the near future seemed to have worked well.
Shops, business establishments, petrol bunks, movie theatres, malls, and shopping complexes remained closed throughout the day voluntarily. There were no instances of the shut down call being enforced by any group of agitators and that showed that people of Hyderabad braced themselves for the last bandh call, as announced by the TRS chief.
While private educational institutions had already declared Dasara holidays, those of the government did not work with both the teaching and non-teaching staff joining the ongoing strike by government employees of Telangana region.
RTC buses, the main public transport facility in city, continued to be off the roads as they were for the past few days as the workers were on strike. The bandh call resulted in curtailment of even the small number of buses operated in some select routes. This made three-wheelers or personal vehicles the only option available for commuters.
The operation of Setwin services, some skeletal services of city buses and plying of autorickshaws, mitigated the suffering of the common man to some extent.
Software sector employees used company buses or personal vehicles to reach their offices.
Some companies in the pharmaceutical sector asked the male employees to attend duties for the first shift while women employees were given a holiday.
No untoward incident was reported in any part of the city.
The bandh had little effect in the old city, though some localities like Laldarwaza and Gowlipura, where the BJP has considerable strength, remained shut. BJP workers went around the areas asking the shops to close down.
