Hyderabad, March 02: Train services across Telangana region were paralysed on Tuesday with the ‘Rail Roko’ call given by the Telangana political Joint Action Committee.
The protest resulted in cancellation of 28 express and 75 passenger trains originating/terminating in Telangana causing a revenue loss close to Rs. 10 crore to the railways in the form of passenger and freight charges. The SCR authorities arranged buses for transport of passengers who were stranded midway in neighbouring Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy and Warangal districts as Narayanadri, Charminar, Chennai express, Godavari and other major trains were stopped.
Followers of the TRS, TDP, BJP and the CPI gathered at dozens of railway stations blocking the movement of trains from 6 am. Squatting on the tracks, they cooked food and raised slogans demanding introduction of Bill on separate Telangana in the Parliament. Dozens of them were arrested by the police when they tried to forcibly stop the trains.
The dawn to dusk protest was by and large peaceful with the South Central Railways authorities deciding to cancel/reschedule some of the major express trains in anticipation of trouble. Tension prevailed in some areas as the activists set fire to tyres dumped on tracks at Veldurthi in Medak while track links were removed at Peddapalli Raghavapur in Adilabad.
TJAC convenor M. Kodandaram led the protest at Ghatkesar and TRS MLA K. T. Rama Rao K.T. Rama Rao supervised the protest at Moula Ali on the city outskirts. The TDP MLAs from Telangana led by Nagam Janardhan Reddy were arrested and released later after staging a demonstration at Secunderabad station.
Passengers of long distance trains were the worst affected as their trains were stranded at Ballarshah, Vijayawada, Khammam and Dornakal in Warangal districts. Important trains like Thiruvanantapuram-bound Kerala Express and Hazrath Nizamuddin – Chennai Garibrath were regulated at Nagpur, Chennai-bound GT Express at Warangal and Tamil Nadu express on its way to New Delhi was blocked at Khammam.
The railway authorities ensured supply of food material and water to the stranded passengers.
SCR authorities had cancelled the Charminar Express scheduled to leave Chennai, Seunderabad-Manmad Ajanta Express, Secunderabad—Bhubaneswar Visakha Express and Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Garib Rath express in view of the ‘rail roko’.
Meanwhile, Director General of Police K. Aravinda Rao said in a statement that 2,050 persons were arrested for 148 incidents of stopping or disrupting trains across Telangana.
-Agencies