Activists of political parties and civil society organisations staged a novel protest by turning the arterial Chennai-Kolkata highway into a playground to impress upon the Centre not to play with the sentiments of the people of the State.
Trucks and other vehicles on the highway near the South bypass junction were stranded as the activists, including women, played kabaddi for sometime on the highway urging the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party not to take the people of fledgling Andhra Pradesh for a ride after promising SCS for 10 years, when the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced SCS for 5 years in the Rajya Sabha.
“It is high time the BJP-led NDA government redeemed its poll promise made in Tirupati to give a helping hand to the successor State of Andhra Pradesh,” said the activists of the YSR Congress Party, Jana Sena Party, Communist Party of India(CPI), CPI(M), CPI(ML) New Democracy and AP Pratyeka Hoda Sadhana Samiti after playing the nation's traditional game under the hot sun.
A high drama was witnessed as the activists offered stiff resistance to the police who bodily lifted them and restored vehicular traffic.
Meanwhile, activists of the ruling Telugu Desam Party led by its district general secretary Kommuri Ravichandra blocked vehicular traffic on the highway at the North bypass junction for sometime and raised slogans against the Centre demanding implementation of all the promises made in Parliament and in the State Reorganisation Act in toto.
