The anti-Telangana agitation continued in Vijayawada with all shopping establishments voluntarily closing their shutters and APSRTC running only a skeleton service on Friday, the third day of the 72-hour bandh called by pro-United Andhra protagonists.
Emotionally-charged people from various walks of life joined the agitation against bifurcation of the State. Students took out massive two-wheeler rallies on the NH5 and formed human chains at several junctions stalling traffic for some time.
As part of the bandh, auto workers burnt tyres at Benz Circle and held rasta roko at noon. The Samaikhyandhra Student JAC members force closed all academic institutions, business establishments, banks and government offices too remained closed on Friday.
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The police took Sunkara Krishna Murthy, a separate Andhra protagonist, into preventive custody. He was scheduled to address a press conference on Jai Andhra movement at the Press Club in Vijayawada. A posse of policemen descended on the Press Club with news spreading that Mr. Murthy would address the media.
The school and college students squatted on road at Ramavarappadu junction bringing the traffic to a grinding halt for nearly an hour. The Electricity Employees staged protest on Eluru Road and burnt tyres to register their protest. Congress Minority cell members staged protest near Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS) here. At the SPDCL – SE office also demonstrations were organised.
Students raised slogans against AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K. Chandrasekhara Rao. The slogans ‘down down Sonia Gandhi, down down KCR’, ‘Jai Samaikyandhra’ rent the air. Students JAC leader Devineni Avinash urged the elected representatives to tender their resignations and join the movement.
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The photographers’ JAC took out a bike rally demanding the UPA Government to reconsider its decision on bifurcation. The YSR Congress Party activists led by P. Gowtham Reddy staged a dharna near SRR and CVR College.
The Congress MLAs and MPs should submit their resignations and fight against the separate State if they were concerned with people’s interests in the coastal districts. Every Telugu has right over Hyderabad and it should be made a Union Territory if State were to be divided, demanded the leaders.