Hyderabad limps back to normalcy

Curfew, which  was imposed on last Monday, claimed yet another life on Friday. Manjula Bai (55) of Habeebnagar in Old City, suffered a cardiac arrest on and died. She could not get medicines in time to save her life as all shops had remained closed.

Similarly, a 28-year-old Kedarnath of Chandrayangutta suffered a stroke and was being rushed to hospital in an autorickshaw. But with every other road being blocked by barbed wire, it took about 40 minutes for the vehicle to reach the hospital which is barely 7 km from his house. He was declared brought dead by the hospital.

Meanwhile, food prices went up five to ten fold as the citizens rushed to stock food stuff. Some also discovered that they had to shell out money to procure curfew pass from the police to get access to their home in curfew-bound areas or move out of the area to deal with an emergency.

According to those who “bought” the curfew passes, they paid anything from Rs 250 to Rs 500 per pass. The lower-rung policemen in some police stations handed over passes to their “agents” who hawked them to desperate citizens at exorbitant prices. Some touts were also reportedly involved in the sale of the pass.

When the problem was brought to the notice of top police officials, they said they had issued thousands of passes for marriage parties and other emergency cases.

City police commissioner A K  Khan said so far 350 people had been arrested and 109 cases registered against those who have indulged in violence.