There was a mixed response to the Opposition parties’ bandh call in Telangana on Saturday in support of their demand for implementation of one-time settlement of the remaining amount of farm loan waiver and announcement of bonus in addition to minimum support price for cotton, maize and paddy.
The protest was marked by arrests of leaders of the Congress, TDP-BJP, Left parties and people’s organisations from the wee hours, when they reached bus depots and stations to obstruct movement of RTC buses. Tension prevailed at some places with jostling between the activists supporting the bandh and the police and stone-pelting on buses at a few places.
Amid contrasting claims by the Opposition and ruling parties, the protest by and large passed off peacefully with police arresting Opposition activists as and when they attempted obstructing buses and taking out processions. Opposition parties termed the bandh a huge success claiming good response from the people, while the ruling party dubbed it a flop with no support from the farming community and the general public.
As such, all the State and Central government offices, including banks and most of the educational institutions, were closed on account of second Saturday, thus reducing the Opposition parties’ burden to enforce bandh only on commercial establishments and private offices. In Hyderabad, incidents of stone-pelting on RTC buses took place at Musheerabad, Chaderghat and Mehdipatnam. However, the buses plied normally after lunch hours. Buses to districts were operated in limited numbers from the main bus stations in the city. Leaders of the Opposition parties were arrested at Warangal, Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Karimnagar and Adilabad, when they tried to enforce bandh.
Congress leaders N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and K. Jana Reddy, who spoke separately, said arrests would not deter their protest until the OTS was implemented. Meanwhile, ruling party leaders Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, Jupally Krishna Rao and K.T. Rama Rao alleged that the Opposition parties had called the bandh only for political gains.
