Telangana JAC stops Seemandhra 'settlers'

Traffic was affected on almost all the national, state and district level highways and roads leading to Hyderabad and Secunderabad with the agitators setting up blockades, demanding the Centre to introduce a Bill to carve a separate state in the ensuing Budget session.

To block the incoming traffic on the high density National Highway-9, the JAC convener Professor M Kodandaram, BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya and TRS leaders, accompanied by a large number of activists, squatted at the LB Nagar junction here. The activists raised slogans against the government and demanded a separate state.

They were later arrested by the police and shifted to a police station. “The government should introduce the Bill in the Budget session. No amount of brutal force could stop the popular demand for self rule,” Kodandaram told reporters. Leaders and activists in Hyderabad and nine other districts of Telangana were detained as the protests led to traffic jams.

The police, however, were able to divert some vehicles from Coastal Andhra through district arterial roads thereby saving many travellers from hours of gruelling wait.
Inside the city, TRS leader N Narasimha Reddy and scores of party activists were held when they blocked traffic at the busy RTC crossroads. There were also major traffic snarls in Kukatpalli and Amirpet areas.

In Nalgonda bordering coastal districts, the JAC agitators succeeded in halting the movement of vehicles on highways linking Miryalaguda, Narkatpalli, Yadagirigutta and Nagarjuna Sagar to Hyderabad. In Medak district, TRS legislator Harish Rao led a road blockade in Siddipet due to which, vehicles coming from Karimnagar were caught in a huge traffic jam. K Chandrasekhara Rao’s son K Taraka Rama Rao led another blockade in Sircilla of Karimnagar. Few activists built brickwalls on roads leading to Coastal and Rayalaseema areas.