Lakhs take part in protests

• Kadapa district RTC employees stop private buses
• Medical professionals stage massive rally in Vijayawada
• Students block Chennai-Mumbai National Highway
• Kurnool hotels to be closed for two days
• Two-day Vizag Agency Area bandh successful
• TDP legislator cleans footwear

Hyderabad: The movement to protest the State’s bifurcation was intensified on Tuesday in the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. Thousands of people converged at Anantapur in name of ‘Ananta Jana Garjana’ and vowed to continue the agitation until the Centre withdraws its proposal to create Telangana. Nandyal MLA and former minister Silpa Mohan Reddy resigned from the Congress to protest the State’s division.

In Bhimavaram of West Godavari district, about 1.25 lakh people participated in the ‘Koti Gala Garjana’. Students, teachers and people from all walks of life voluntarily took part. They warned of intensifying the stir if the Government goes ahead with the State’s division.

Undi Telugu Desam MLA Kalavapudi Siva also took part in the rally. He told reporters that he had already resigned and was actively participating in protests. Earlier, he polished footwear of passers-by to express his protest at Akividu. In a novel protest, farmers transplanted paddy saplings on the roads at Attili. Hundreds of students staged a noisy dharna in front of the Congress party office in Vizianagaram to protest attacks on them by alleged supporters of PCC chief and Transport minister Botcha Satyanarayana.

Students and staff of NTR Health University along with doctors, nurses and staff of government hospitals took out a massive rally in Vijayawada backing Samaikyandhra. In Kadapa district, NGOs and RTC employees stopped private buses plying to different destinations. Representatives of several educational institutions joined the strike and held rallies, human chains.

The Irrigation department employees organized a rally in Nellore. They converged in a public meeting, organising variety entertainment programmes. Even senior officers participated. Students organized a ‘rasta roko’ on the Chennai-Mumbai national highway in Chittoor district disrupting traffic for some time.

Hotel and tea-shop owners voluntarily decided on Tuesday to shut their shops in Kurnool district for 48 hours in support of Samaikyandhra. In Adoni, a ‘Lakshajana Gala Ghosha’ was held, with a large number of people participating In Narasaraopet, Guntur district, a ‘Lakshagala Vidyarthi Gosha’ was conducted. A large number of TDP workers, under the leadership of Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, took part.

Teachers of various schools launched relay hunger strike at the Gandhi statue in Visakhapatnam. A group of children visited the fast camp to extend support by rendering poems from Vemana and ‘Sumati Satakams’. The two-day bandh called by the All Joint Action Committees (JACs) of NGOs, Teachers, Employees, Workers and Private Organizations in the 11 scheduled mandals of Visakhapatnam Agency area on Monday-Tuesday was successful.