Violence in Seemandhra as agitation takes turn for worse

Protesters target Congress leaders, power installations

Anti-bifurcation activists continued to target the houses and offices of ruling Congress party leaders in 13 coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema districts on the second day of the bandh on Saturday, even as the protests against the Union Cabinet's decision on the creation of Telangana state turned violent in several places.

The staff of the state power utilities reportedly shut down units in a couple of power stations, affecting the generation of over 1,000 Mw of power, while disrupting the supply in six districts in a separate instance. Officials, however, maintained that the generation in five units with a total installed capacity of 1,050 Mw at Rayalaseema Thermal Power Station in Kadapa district halted due to technical snags and not by any human intervention. In Visakhapatnam district, protesters and staff have reportedly shut down a 240 Mw unit of the Sileru hydro power station.

Police fired dozens of tear gas shells to disperse stone-pelting mobs that continued to target the houses and properties of the Pradesh Congress Committee president and state road transport minister, Botcha Satyanarayana, and his relatives in Vizianagaram town on the second day. The protestors also burnt furniture and equipment of a cable TV distribution office owned by one of the relatives of Satyanarayana, while the police personnel injuries while trying to disperse the agitators, according to reports reaching here.

In East Godavari district, angry mobs resorted to stone pelting at the sleepy coastal town of Amalapuram, targeting a college premises owned by Congress MP G V Harsha Kumar. Groups of angry protestors laid siege to the houses of Union ministers Pallam Raju, Killi Kruparani and state minister Kanna Laxminarayana, among others, in their respective native towns. In Nellore district, the protestors blocked a couple of express trains coming from Tamil Nadu during the day.

But for the presence of additional police and para military forces in the sensitive areas in these districts, there was no reaction from the government heads, either on the continued involvement of government staff in the ongoing protests or on the targeting of Congress leaders.

State government employees, the staff of the road transport corporation and the power utilities in Seemandhra region had launched an indefinite strike soon after the Congress Working Committee adopted a resolution in favour of the division of Andhra Pradesh state on July 30. With the Union Cabinet giving an official endorsement for the creation of Telangana state on Thursday, things completely went out of gear, with competing political parties adding more power to the anti-bifurcation protests.

Jagan begins fast
On Saturday, YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy launched an indefinite fast at his Lotus Pond residence in Hyderabad against the Centre’s decision, in the presence of his supporters.

He has been demanding the rollback of the decision while maintaining that the Centre had completely ignored the concerns of Seemandhra people in this regard.

Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu  too announced a similar fast starting from Monday in Delhi.