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The bandh call given by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhara Rao less than 48 hours ago received an overwhelming response across the Telangana region on Thursday, indicating the general opposition to the idea of the formation of Rayala-Telangana state.
The success of bandh gave the much needed morale boost to the TRS and its president, who had to remain on the sidelines ever since the process for the state bifurcation started in July with the Congress leadership planning to take the entire credit for the division in the next elections.
The reports that the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde favoured the idea of adding two districts of the Rayalaseema region to the proposed Telangana state came as a surprise to Telangana leaders besides giving an instant opportunity for the TRS to assert its moral hold over the issue. The bandh call coincided with the Union Cabinet’s meeting to approve the draft Telangana Bill.
Public transport, petrol bunks, cinema halls, shops and offices across the region remained shut. Some some of the IT companies in Hyderabad too closed the mid shift. Most of the mines in Singareni Collieries spread across the four district remained closed as the workers joined the bandh.
Attendance in several government offices in the city was reportedly thin as the 3,500-strong fleet of city buses remained confined to the depots till evening. Close to 70 per cent branches of most of the banks in the region remained closed, according to a senior official of a public sector bank.
