 "Seemandhra ministers meet Prime Minister")
Union Ministers from the Seemandhra region, including HRD Minister M Pallam Raju who had resigned from the Union Cabient, today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss with how to put out the political fires that have Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema in their grips in the wake of the decision to bifurcate the state.
Pallam Raju, is no longer pressing his resignation and his colleague Panabaka Laxmi has not resigned. But Home Minister SK Shinde also met PM to discuss how to get the situation in two extremely prosperous regions of AP, back into control.
For the second day running, Seemandhra remained powerless as electricity employees of the state power generation, transmission and distribution companies stayed away from work for the second day. This affected not just the power supply to this region but also Hyderabad. Railway trains were cancelled and without power, the Brahmotsavam festival in Tirupati was also cancelled. The power utilities could produce only 2,990 MW thermal power against the installed capacity of 6,090 MW yesterday. Similarly, power from the hydel generation stood at 1,694 MW against the installed capacity of 3,937 MW.
Several gas-based power plants are also not functioning due to gas shortage problems.
The employees have already announced a fresh programme of agitations till October 20. They say they will talk only to the Chief Minister, Kiran Kumar Reddy.
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YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is already on an indefinite fast. Today, Telugu Desam Party leader Chandrababu Naidu started his own indefinite fast against the division of the state in Delhi.
Curfew continued in Vizianagaram, a town in coastal Andhra, though no firing was reported today.
The Seemandhra hostility is having its effect on all aspects of life. Bank branches in the region say ATMs are running out of cash and wondered how they would replenish it. Weddings have been cancelled in the entire region. Cable operators have stopped services because there is no power and petrol pumps are shutting down for the same reason.
| TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu was the latest to go on an indefinite fast against the division of AP, though he did not say whether he was opposed to the creation of Telangana |
Jaganmohan Reddy of the YSR Congress is already on a fast
Petrol pumps in Seemandhra ran dry, weddings were called off and ATM machines showed depletion of cash
Cable operators pulled services off the air and the famous Brahmotsavam festival at the Balaji temple at Tirupati was cancelled, a first.
The centre persuaded ministers from the region not to resign