Telangana 'rail roko' called off
Teachers, govt employees also return to work
Giving peace a chance in the Telangana region, the Telangana Joint Action Committee has decided to put a stop to the three-day rail roko and allow movement of trains from Monday.
With this, the South Central Railway announced restoration of its regular schedule beginning from Monday.
Similarly, 60,000 employees of AP State Road Transportation Corporation (APSRTC) have decided to withdraw from the ongoing Sakala Janula Samme, bringing buses to the roads after a gap of almost 28 days, much to the cheer of the common man. Following suit, 1.5 lakh teachers also decided to attend duties without signing in the attendance registers and withdrawing their salaries.
However, three-wheelers in the twin cities will be off the road for 24 hours starting from Sunday midnight in support of the general bundh in the region called in protest of arrests of Telangana MLAs and MPs during the first day of the rail roko on Saturday.
Train services continued to remain affected in the region on day two of the rail roko even as some MPs and MLAs arrested in connection with agitation on Saturday were remanded to judicial custody in different jails on Sunday. Protests on railway tracks continued in Khammam, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Nizamabad and Warangal districts but police foiled the plans and detained hundreds of protesters. In Warangal police resorted to lathicharge when agitators brought in bullock carts on to the railway tracks.
Activists also resorted to demonstrations in different districts demanding release of their leaders and others who were arrested on Saturday. In Vikarabad, they torched an APSRTC bus and a few tried to build a wall across the railway track. In Hyderabad, police thwarted attempts of ABVP activists to storm the Ministers Quarters and took into custody around 10 members of the organisation.
MPs and MLAs belonging to TRS and the Congress who were arrested on Saturday along with pro-Telangana agitators were remanded to judicial custody on Sunday. While MP Ponnam Prabhakar, Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao and former minister Jeevan Reddy remained in Medak Sub-Jail, Lok Sabha member Vijayshanthi and KCR’s daughter Kavitha were out on bail.
