Telangana Shutdown Puts Normal Life Out of Gear, 165 Trains Cancelled
The bandh called for separate statehood to Telangnan region of Andhra Pradesh has paralysed normal life in the entire area, with authorities ordering cancellation of 165 trains including 32 MMTS (Hyderabad Metro Trains) and short service passenger trains fearing violence.
South Central Railway (SCR) said in a press release that three express trains passing through Telangana region have been cancelled and server other regulated in view of Wednesday’s bandh.
The trains cancelled include Intercity Express, Golkonda Express and Palnad Express, all of which ply between Guntur and Secunderabad.
While the Janmabhoomi Express, which runs between Visakhapatnam and Secunderabad, will be terminated at Tenali instead of running its final destination.
In the meanwhile, additional security has been put in place in Telangana to maintain peace and calm with 30 companies of central paramilitary force and 16 companies of special police force from neighbouring states being pressed into action.
The fourth in the last one month, the bandh also affected Brand Hyderabad hard.
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) had to move its annual meeting out of Hyderbad to Chennai.
Reports said that losses worth Rs 500 crore have been inflicted on pharma sector during the Telangana agitation.
IT and IT enabled Services have been affected, as employees are not reporting to work on the days of bandh, fearing attack.
Earlier on Tuesday night, TRS President K Chandrashekhar Rao said that he was prepared for talks but the Centre should make a clear stand on statehood issue.
“We are ready for talks with the centre involving Andhra leaders who are opposing bifurcation of the state. But the condition is Centre should make a clear statement on Telangana and allay apprehensions created following Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement on December 23 to assuage the feelings of people from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions,” said KCR.
“TRS didn’t want new committees to be constituted to initiate the process for Telangana state. We want a clear statement from the Centre immediately,” he demanded.
