Anantapur: Tension prevailed at Pangal Road in Anantapur Municipal Corporation limits, when the police tried to restrain a large number of students of Sri Krishnadevaraya University from entering its headquarters to agitate against state bifurcation, on Friday.
Hundreds of students from S. K. Varsity took a procession towards Anantapur about 8 kms away. Police forces blocked Pangal Road at the entrance of AMC. SKU JAC leaders shouted slogans against the police and tried to break the barricades. Police arrested activists and cleared the route.
SKU JAC leader K. Sadashiva Reddy accused the Centre of expediting the bifurcation process. TD MLAs B. K. Parthasarathi, Palle Raghunath Reddy and Paritala Sunitha and politburo member K. Sreenivasulu got into heated arguments with the police at the main gate of Arts College hostel for shutting the hostel gates.
Police did not allow students to come out from the hostel to join in the agitation. At least 980 state-owned RTC bus services remained confined to depots as the RTC JAC extended support to the bandh.
The YSR Congress party had given a call for the one-day bandh, while Telugu Desam called bandh for 48-hours in Seemandhra region. Activists led by the women’s wing of YSR Congress party tried to protest at primary education minister S. Sailajanath’s residence in Naik Nagar area here.
YSR Congress party activists were resisted by the police at the District Congress Committee office when they tried to ransack the office.
Advocates of the District Court staged a rasta roko in Anantapur. The entire NH-44 stretch between Kurnool-Bangalore and Chennai Highway in between Anantapur-Kadiri were blocked after protestors blocked the road with tyres at various places.
Unidentified activists set fire to a junction box of BSNL at Uravakonda in the district. All education institutions, state and central government offices, banks and business establishments remained closed in the district.
