The bandh call given by Telangana Joint Action Committee evoked mixed response in the State capital on Friday.
While majority of the educational institutions voluntarily declared holiday, bandh enforcers targeted RTC buses scuttling attempts of the authorities to operate them from morning. Over 50 RTC buses and some private buses were damaged by agitators, mostly belonging to Telangana Rashtra Samithi, at different parts of the city.
Auto-rickshaws plied on some routes but the drivers fleeced the passengers collecting huge fares for small distances. At Balanagar, Jeedimetla and other industrial areas, scores of workers were seen waiting for buses at bus-stops. Efforts by the authorities to resume bus services by 10 a.m. was met with stiff resistance by the TRS workers at RTC crossroads, Shapurnagar, Bowenpally and Kukatpally.
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Agitators pelted stones at buses damaging windscreens at Ziaguda, Lingampally, NGOs colony, Ramnagar, Vidyanagar and Chikkadpally. The damage to buses was estimated at rupees six lakh while the operational loss was over Rs. 1.2 crore, the RTC authorities said. Farmers bringing vegetables to Rytu Bazar had tough time as pro-Telangana activists intercepted private vehicles several times on city outskirts.
On an average, farmers bring in about 7,000 quintals of vegetables to city. But most of them were forced to return to their villages by bandh enforcers. Though petrol bunks, theatres, shops and business establishments in central parts of the city were closed, majority of them were open on outskirts.
All of them started normal business activity from noon. By evening, all bus services were resumed. The bandh call had absolutely no effect in Old City. Software companies having private transportation services worked normally.
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“We are slowly getting adjusted to such bandh calls by slightly changing our work schedule for the day,” a software professional Rami Reddy from Kukatpally said. He and his colleagues use their personal vehicles to reach office if public transportation services are stopped on bandh day.