AP bandh partial, peaceful

​Vijayawada: The Opposition-sponsored bandh seeking special category status for Andhra Pradesh was partial and peaceful across the State on Tuesday. Several shops remained closed till evening as the traders too joined the bandh. Leaders of the Congress, YSRCP, CPI and the CPI-M took out rallies across the State to enforce the bandh.

APSRTC had operated skeletal services in Vijayawada and the rural parts of the State till afternoon. The activists of the Opposition squatted at the RTC bus stations in the morning preventing buses coming on to the roads. Though the police used force to lift the agitators and give way for the RTC, the buses remained off the roads till lunch break.

The cloth market and the gold market in Vijayawada remained closed till late in the evening in support of the bandh. The traders responded to the call given by the Opposition parties expressing solidarity. The police arrested the agitating leaders of all parties.

CPI leaders, including its secretary K Ramakrishna were arrested and shifted them to various police stations in Vijayawada. Ramakrishna was arrested for leading a motorcycle rally and was kept in the Satyanarayanapuram police station.

AITUC State president Chalasani Venkata Rama Rao was arrested at Nuzvid while he was enforcing the bandh. Nuzvid legislator Meka Pratap Apparao was also arrested and was shifted to the local police station along with his supporters. YSRCP city president and former legislator Vangaveeti Radhakrishna was arrested and shifted to Thotlavallur police station.

The Congress leaders took out a rally in the city in support of the bandh. However, the police arrested the leaders and cleared the cadre from the streets. Former legislator and YSRCP leader Perni Nani was arrested by the local police at Machilipatnam. Earlier he took out a rally in the town raising slogans for the special category status.

Though the TDP did not join the bandh, its legislator from Ponnuru in Guntur district Dhulipala Narendra held a relay hunger strike in the town criticising the Central government for not giving the special category status to the State. He sought to advise the Centre not to betray people who have voted the party to power for its promise to give special category status for 10 years.

In the temple town of Tirupati, shops and establishments, schools, colleges, hotels and cinema halls remain closed while some of the government offices functioned normally. The APSRTC bus services remained suspended till noon but started plying later.

Bandh in Srikakulam was peaceful. All educational, commercial and private establishments remained closed for the first half day in Srikakulam and other municipal towns across the district. The workers and leaders of YSRCP, CPI, CPM and Congress parties along with the various public organisations staged protests in front of the RTC bus stands in Ongole, Markapuram and Kanigiri.

Educational institutions and few government offices in Ongole, Kanigiri, Markapuram and Kondepi were closed. But the public in Addanki, Kandukur, Parchur, Darsi and Santanutalapadu constituencies did not pay much attention to bandh call. The regular life in these places was not affected during bandh.

The bandh evoked mixed response in Vizianagaram district. The inter-district RTC buses were confined to depots. Besides RTC buses, transport lorries that entered into Andhra Pradesh from Telangana and Karnataka were also halted on the national high way.

The state-wide bandh was incident-free and near total in Anantapur. Hundreds of YSRCP, Congress and the Left-wing parties went round the city in groups shouting slogans demanding according of special status to AP. Schools, colleges and educational institutions declared holiday.