10,000 buses remain off road in Telangana

Life remains crippled in about half of Andhra Pradesh including Hyderabad as about 8.5 lakh staff members of various government departments and other allied agencies have been striking work seeking statehood for Telangana.

Normal life in 10 districts of Telangana has almost come to a halt with public transportation going off track.

About 10,000 buses plying on the roads of Telangana have remained in bus depots and the inter district transportation has come to a halt.

With the Telangana joint action committee calling for a two-day “rail roko” from Saturday, the public transport link between South and North India is likely to remain muted.

The workers at Singareni Collieries, one of the biggest coal assets in South India, have been on a strike for 11 days affecting coal supplies to several power generation units in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The impact of drop in coal supply is already being felt with generation dropping in many state-run units.

Meanwhile, the JAC is now working on further intensifying the strike. “The 11-day strike seems to have not shown any impact on the Centre. We have no option but to take up militant movement for achieving statehood to the region. That does not mean we will take up violent movement,” M Kodandaram, chairman of the JAC, said.

The strike is, however, having a major impact on the political equations in the state. 

Congress and TDP MLAs and MPs from Telangana now find themselves pushed to a corner. While the Congress leaders are still not able to get the nod of the high command to join the movement, TDP leaders are not being accepted by the people of Telangana.

The TDP is accused of playing a “double-game” by fielding its leaders in both Andhra and Telangana by supporting two different slogans - separate Telangana and united AP.