As reports about likelihood of bifurcation of the State emerged from New Delhi in the backdrop of the core committee meeting of Congress, the coastal districts and Rayalaseema witnessed agitations and a call for bandh in the two regions by student organisations on Saturday.
The Joint Action Committee of students and employees called for closure of schools and colleges in Krishna district and bandh in Bhimavaram and other places. The JAC tried to attack vehicles near the Telugu Talli statue in Anantapur town.
A dharna was held near the residence of Congress MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao demanding his resignation in Guntur town.
The MP, however, was away in the US. The agitationists were sore that Mr. Rao was indifferent to the demand to keep the State integrated from last year.
Advocates took out a procession from the district court to Collectorate where they staged a dharna in Kadapa. They boycotted courts for the second day.
In Ongole, students of Acharya Nagarjuna university’s post-graduation college resorted to road blockade after boycotting classes. The students and teaching and non-teaching staff gathered on Chennai–Kolkata highway and raised slogans against bifurcation.
It led to a traffic jam as trucks and buses were stranded for a long distance on both ways.
The students JAC demanded Union Minister Panabaka Lakshmi and Congress MP M. Srinivasulu Reddy to resign and plunge into the movement for integrated State.
The effigies of TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Telangana joint action committee chairman M. Kodandaram were burnt and a human chain formed in Guntur.
M. Venkatasiva Reddy, a former MLC, warned in Kadapa that attempts to split the State would not be tolerated at any cost.
Mr. Reddy, along with Rayalaseema JAC leaders and representatives of other organisations, addressed a media conference where they accused Ministers E. Pratap Reddy and T.G. Venkatesh of misleading the people of the region though they knew about the impending bifurcation of the State.
