Telangana drowns in wild celebrations

Telangana erupted in joy Friday, hours after the Rajya Sabha approved a bill for separate statehood to the region.

Political parties and non-political groups who fought for a separate state organised celebrations in Hyderabad and nine other districts of the region.

People woke up to a new dawn with the passage of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill in the Rajya Sabha Thursday night.

Victory processions, rallies, meetings, bursting of firecrackers and distribution of sweets marked the celebrations.

Activists of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Telangana Joint Action Committee and other groups took to the streets in town after town.

Amid beating of drums and fireworks, Telangana supporters danced and gave away sweets.

Government employees, lawyers, traders, students, women and people from other sections of the society joined the celebrations.

The Telangana Chamber of Commerce organised a massive procession in Warangal, considered a bastion of the Telangana movement.

Waving their party flags and the national flag, political activists marched through the streets in Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Khammam, Medak, Karimnagar, Adilabad, Nizamabad and other towns.

Hundreds, including students, also took part in a massive "victory procession" at Suryapet in Nalgonda district.

Wild celebrations erupted across the region Thursday night.

Raising slogans of 'Jai Telangana', youths took out bike rallies. TRS activists sprinkled pink color on each other. Pink is the colour of the TRS flag.

The state secretariat in Hyderabad was rocked by the celebrations Friday. The employees from Telangana hailed the passage of the bill by taking out a procession.

"Our dream has finally come true. It's time for celebrations," said Narender Rao, leader of the Telangana employees.

The employees uprooted a picture of Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.
It was gloom for employees from Seemandhra (Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra) region at the secretariat.

Ever since the central government decided to divide Andhra Pradesh in July 2013, secretariat employees from Seemandhra have held protests almost daily for a united Andhra Pradesh.

At Gandhi Bhavan, the headquarters of Congress, party activists raised slogans in praise of Sonia Gandhi and put up huge banners with her pictures. At some places, Congress workers washed the pictures of Sonia Gandhi with milk to hail her support for the Telangana bill.