JOIN USNormal life came to a standstill in almost all the districts of Telangana on Thursday as educational institutions and establishments remained closed and public transport was taken off the road in response to a day-long bandh called by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) and student JAC against the proposed Rayala-Telangana state.
The bandh evoked partial response in Hyderabad but was near total in the remaining nine districts of the region. Over 12,600 buses in 94 depots of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) in the Telangana region went off the road, causing inconvenience to commuters. In Hyderabad, MMTS local train service operated normally.
Inter-district bus services were also affected as agitators laid siege to MGBS and JBS terminals forcing the APSRTC authorities to suspend services from Hyderabad to other parts of Telangana and also Seemandhra (Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra).
Shops and business establishments voluntarily shut down in most parts of Medak, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Warangal and other districts.
Activists of the TRS, TJAC, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India and striking APSRTC employees staged a sit-in outside the bus depots from early morning, blocking the vehicles.
Coal production in state-owned Singareni Collieries Company was hit as employees belonging to TRS-affiliated trade unions struck work. Production was affected in the coal mines spread across Khammam, Warangal, Karimnagar and Adilabad districts. According to reports, 20,000 coal workers in 18 mines participated in the bandh in Adilabad, affecting production of 40,000 tonnes of coal.
Police lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the students who had gathered at the gates of Osmania University to take out a rally to Gun Park near the state Assembly.
Angered over not being allowed to take out the rally, the slogan shouting protesters forcibly tried to pull aside the barricades on the OU campus and also poured petrol and set on fire some of the barricades. An inspector, Vijay Srinivas, sustained minor injuries in the attack.