Telangana costing Rs150 crore a day

Hyderabad, December 18: Whether or not Telangana is formed, the trade and industry in Andhra Pradesh is already feeling the heat.

With law and order slipping out of hands in some places and frequent shutdown calls given by political activists, trade is said to be suffering severe losses all across the state, while the industry is wary of the dent to Brand AP.

According to estimates of various industry bodies, the trade is suffering at least Rs 150 crore of loss every day in various parts of the state, either due to interruption in transporting goods or operating at points of sale.

“All our lorries are stuck on the roads due to shutdowns in both Telangana and Andhra regions. Even when we try to take the risk of moving the vehicles out of the troubled areas, the protesters are attacking them, causing loss to the vehicle and the goods in it,” a trader not willing to be named told.

Chief minister K Rosaiah too has expressed concern over the way the protests are affecting development activities in the state.

“Development activities are definitely facing the heat. The government is also unable to implement flagship programmes like NREGP. With this, the lower sections of the society are the worst hit,” Rosaiah said. He has also expressed concern over the impact of the protests on the IT and ITeS sector.

The Hyderabad Software Exporters Association (Hysea) has also expressed its displeasure over the turn of events.

“There have been isolated incidents of IT and ITeS companies being targeted in both Hyderabad and Vizag and operations disrupted. Such incidents dent the confidence of our employees, customers and investors and have the potential to severely impact the brand of the state as a destination for IT and impact our growth prospects,” said Hysea president. Narasimha Rao. More than the division of the state, the IT industry is worried about the attacks on the IT infrastructure by protesters.

The industry is also worried about the impact the protests would have on attracting further investments into the state, particularly at a time when some of the SEZs are working overtime to attract clients.

–Agencies–