After curfew was clamped down late last night, shoot at sight orders have been issued in Vizianagaram town in Seemandhra on Sunday, as agitations have pulsated through the region since the Cabinet made its announcement of creating Telangana.
The Vizianagaram region has witnessed immense violence with the protesters indulging in arson, setting a bank on fire, and damaging public and private properties, after which the police was forced to impose shoot at sight orders in the area.
Meanwhile, employees in Vijayawada called an indefinite bandh in the region on Sunday, after a 48-hour shutdown came to an end at 6 a.m. this morning.
According to reports, express trains, local trains and power supply has been severely affected in Vijayawada, after employees refused to end their strike to protest against the bifurcation of state.
On Saturday, demonstrations erupted in Visakhapatnam, with protestors demanding a 'united Andhra or nothing', and said that Ministers and Members of Parliament should genuinely resign, without fear, to pressurize the Centre for keeping the state united.
The decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh in southern India to form the state of Telangana evoked a series of protests in the port city of Visakhapatnam, with hundreds of people staging a mass rally to voice their demand for a unified Andhra Pradesh.
"Our main demand is all the MPs (Members of Parliament) should resign, sincerely not the fake, we do not want the fake resignations. MPs and ministers- they have to get their resignation accepted. They have to resign from their positions, their portfolios, if necessary they have to resign from the party also. They have to come to the people, they have to fight for the people for United Andhra. We are not going to accept any other option than the United Andhra. We are for United Andhra," said Naren Reddy, one of the protestors in Visakhapatnam.
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Political leaders have also staged strong demonstrations to favour a united Andhra, with YSR Congress Party Chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy continuing his indefinite hunger strike against the creation of a separate state for Telangana for the second day on Sunday.
Earlier, expressing deep anguish over the arbitrary bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Reddy has blamed Congress President Sonia Gandhi for the "crisis" in the state and accused her of exploiting sentiments of people to pave way for Rahul Gandhi to become prime minister.
"Sonia Gandhi is responsible for the crisis in the state and she has been playing with the sentiments of the people with the singular motive of seeing to it that her son Rahul Gandhi is made Prime Minister," he told media at the Lotus Pond camp office where he began his indefinite fast on Saturday demanding the Centre to review its decision of bifurcating the State.
He further appealed to Sonia Gandhi to reconsider the decision, as creating a new state would badly affect the future generations of one region.
"The division is arbitrary in nature and does not address all issues that are bound to crop up after the bifurcation," he said.
"The motive of the division could be political but Delhi cannot play with the sentiments of the people of one region. I once again appeal to the Centre to roll back its decision on division," he said, adding that BJP should also take a call on the issue and stand up for a united state.
Reddy earlier said his party would approach the Supreme Court, and ask it to tell the Centre to withdraw its arbitrary decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.
The pro-united Andhra demonstrations turned violent on the second day yesterday of the 72-hour shutdown.