Hyderabad, September 25: Already paralysed life went into the coma in the entire Telangana region on Saturday with almost all services coming to a grinding halt.
Following a two-day ‘Rail Roko’ call given by pro-Telangana organisations, the South Central Railway itself halted all its operations in the region. The SCR cancelled 55 express trains, diverted 55, partially cancelled 48, rescheduled 48 and regulated two other trains originating from, coming to or passing through the Telangana region. In addition, as many as 102 pairs of passenger trains have been fully or partially cancelled and 222 MMTS services and 102 DHMU trains in the twin cities were cancelled. All the railway stations wore a deserted look and passengers were seen only at the counters to collect their refund for cancellation of tickets.
The leaders of Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India-ML New Democracy and other groups protested on the tracks across the Telangana region on Saturday demanding statehood for Telangana.
Considered city’s lifeline, over 50,000 auto-rickshaws too went off the roads for 48-hours from Saturday. Although the auto-rickshaw unions were originally demanding increase in the auto-fares due to hike in petrol rates, but they too joined the T-chorus and this time they linked their strike with the Sakala Janula Samme. However, some auto-rickshaw drivers who plied on Saturday made a killing by charging exorbitant amounts from the needy passengers.
Over 10,000 public transport buses too remained off the road on the sixth consecutive day due to participation of RTC employees from the Telangana in the general strike. The management tried in vain on Saturday to convince the employees’ unions to call off the strike, at least partially. The road blockades too continued at several places and buses coming from Seemandhra region or other States were denied entry by the Telangana activists. According to a report, four Hyderabad-bound Volvo buses coming from Guntur were damaged by some unknown Telangana activists near Maal of Chintaplli mandal in Nalgonda district.
Following a bandh call given by Osmania University Students Joint Action Committee, the petrol bunks in the twin cities too remained shut. While some private schools located in residential areas functioned and conducted the quarterly examination, a majority of schools remained closed. Almost all government and private educational institutions too remained closed. Although the attendance in private establishments was thin, but it did not had a major impact due to weekend.
Meanwhile, the State Government has intensified security across the region. In view of clashes between the Telugu Desam Party and TRS workers on Friday, the State police has also begun the process of identify ‘politically sensitive’ locations on the lines of ‘communally sensitive’ places. While large number of security personnel was deployed near railway stations, elaborate security arrangements were also made at the residences and offices of Congress and TDP leaders.
Commercial establishments, shopping malls and cinema theatres in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad witnessed very less footfall on Saturday.
——Agencies