Telangana crisis leads to Andhra shutdown

According to reports from Hyderabad, normal life remained paralysed with rail and electricity services crippled in most parts of Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions, with thousands of employees of power generation units joined the strike protesting bifurcation. The power generation in three major units in Seemandhra regions was stopped due to which hundreds of villages plunged into darkness.

Police resorted to lathi-charge and lobbed teargas shells at several places to disperse agitators.  Curfew was imposed in the headquarters of the north coastal district of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday evening after pro ‘United Andhra’ demonstrations turned violent, injuring several police personnel and destroying public and private properties, including those of PCC president Satyanarayana.

The South Central Railways had to face the brunt of power shutdown and several passenger trains were cancelled. 

According to railway officials, diesel locomotives were used to run some long distance and express trains passing through Vijayawada division as Chennai-Howrah rout is completely electrified. A number of inter-city Metro trains and goods trains were cancelled.

Meanwhile, CM Kiran Kumar Reddy has appealed to electricity employees to call off their stir on humanitarian grounds as medical,  drinking water, irrigation and rail services are being affected in the state. At a high-level review meeting, he asked the chief secretary P K Mohanty and DGP Prasada Rao to take stringent action against anti-social elements indulging in violence.

Protesting against the decision of the Congress party and the union cabinet, the non-gazetted officers of the AP state government are at work strike for the past two months. The state-owned road transport corporation services have been already affected for the past two months, resulting in all out business, education and transport interruption.