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Andhra on the boil, again
Telangana agitators beat up a senior TDP leader and damaged public buses and public and private properties in various parts of the region even as the bandh called by the TRS-led joint action committee proved effective.
Telangana agitators on Thursday beat up a senior Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader and damaged public buses and public and private properties in various parts of the region even as the bandh called by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)-led joint action committee proved effective.
Protesting students attacked Nagam Janardhana Reddy, TDP MLA from Mahboobnagar district in Telangana, and five other TDP MLAs who had gone to the Osmania University campus to express solidarity with the agitators.
The angry students, who alleged that the TDP’s backtracking on the Telangana statehood issue resulted in the Centre’s putting the issue on the backburner again, damaged six vehicles belonging to the legislators.
The joint action committee has, however, called off the bandh on Friday to allow Christmas celebrations.
Tension prevailed on the campuses of Osmania University in Hyderabad and Kakatiya University in Warangal.
State Police Spokesperson A.R. Anuradha said the agitators damaged over 50 state-owned buses since Wednesday night.
She said though the state police were “fully geared” to tackle the situation, additional police from neighbouring states and central paramilitary forces were being rushed to Hyderabad and other Telangana districts.
Protests were staged at 427 places in the region, she said. Government offices were attacked and set afire at several places.
No mid-day meals
That the agitation over Telangana is spinning out of control became amply clear from an incident on Thursday.
Some people claiming to be agitators supporting the demand for a separate Telangana state damaged a vehicle carrying meals for poor children studying in government schools. The heartless action resulted in 3,000 children going without food the whole day.
Police said the agitators waylaid the vehicle carrying the food cans and hotboxes on the outskirts of the city.
“The vehicle was going from the central kitchen of Naandi Foundation at Uppal to L.B. Nagar when it was attacked,” said Leena Joseph, national head, Mid-day Meal Programme of Naandi Foundation. “It’s a sad day for us.”
