The raging agitation against the central government’s nod to creation of Telangana state intensified on Sunday, with protesters defying curfew and shoot-at-sight orders in Vizianagaram town and pelting the police with stones and attacking properties of the state Congress chief.
Curfew was imposed on Saturday night when protesters set several buildings on fire, looted shops and damaged public and private properties, said inspector general of police Dwaraka Tirumala Rao.
But defying curfew, anti-bifurcation protesters hit the streets in the town and other parts of the district and clashed with the police.
Police fired rubber bullets to disperse protesters at Kothapeta and used batons against a mob in Palliveedhi.
Satyna Engineering College run by Andhra Pradesh Congress chief Botsa Satyanarayana’s family was also targeted. His properties have been targeted since Friday, a day after the Union cabinet cleared Telangana.
Rao said the situation in the rest of Seemandhra--- the name for the residuary 13 districts of Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema---was under control.
An employees’ organisation had called for a 48-hour strike, which ended Saturday, against the decision. YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, who has taken a centre-stage in the anti-Telangana stir, on Saturday morning started his indefinite hunger strike and blamed Congress president Sonia Gandhi for engineering the state’s division as “she had an eye on votes from Andhra Pradesh just to crown her son Rahul as the next PM”.
His strike entered second day on Sunday. He has appealed political parties to undo the “arbitrary” manner in which the state is being divided.
About 70,000 power employees also stepped up the ante and went on an indefinite strike against the bifurcation. Though generation is being maintained to some extent, transmission and distribution have been affected. Six out of seven units of Vijayawada thermal station were shut down due to the strike.
South Central Railway cancelled several passenger trains in view of a possible break in power supply to railways.
Credits: hindustantimes
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