Karimnagar: The bandh called by the Karimnagar district Congress committee (DCC) in protest against Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy stripping minister D. Sridhar Babu of the legislative affairs portfolio was total and peaceful on Wednesday. The portfolio was allocated to Kiran’s loyalist S. Sailajanath.
While educational institutions declared holiday, petrol refilling stations, cinemas, commercial establishments and banks remained closed.
Many of the business organisations observed bandh voluntarily. RTC buses remained off the road.
Bandh was total in Sircilla, Metpali, Korutla, Jagtial, Dharmapuri, Huzurabad, Husnabad, Jammmikunta, Sultanabad, Peddapalli, Godavarikhani, Manthani and other towns.
Raising slogans against the chief minister, Congress workers hit the road and burnt him in effigy denouncing him for the move, which is politically significant as the AP Reorganisation Bill 2013 would come up for debate in Assembly when it resumes session on January 3.
Congress cadres also staged demonstrations at several places across the district.
In Karimnagar, Congress leaders and functionaries dook out a bike rally and enforced bandh.
They even attacked one Shyam Sunder, owner of Rahul Electronics near Amaravati Bar, for keeping his shop open, leading to mild tension in the place. However, police intervened and brought the situation under control.
At the Tower Circle, the minister’s followers attacked a sweet shop and broke the glass panes.
The party men, led by DCC president Konduru Ravinder Rao, squatted at the RTC bus station to prevent vehicles move out from the place.
RTC buses did not ply on the roads till afternoon. Buses from Jagtial, Warangal, Godavarikhani and Vemulawada had to be parked on the road, putting the passengers to inconvenience.
Sensing further trouble, police entered the scene and took the protesters into custody and shifted them to I Town police station. Buses plied as usual from afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Congress functionaries staged a dharna at the I Town police station demanding that their leaders be released.
Karimnagar MP Ponnam Prabhakar and constituency in-charge Ch. Lakshmi Narasimha Rao reache the station and spoke to those arrested.
They condemned the chief minister’s move and said change in the portfolio was undemocratic.
At Choppadandi, PCC BC Cell co-ordinator T. Srinivas Goud demanded that the chief minister should be dismissed for being anti-Telangana and taking away minister Sridhar Babu’s portfolio. However, he said separate Telangana cannot be stalled at any cost.
NSUI activists burnt the chief minister in effigy at Telangana Chowk.
State SC Corporation chairman A. Lakshman Kumar, DCMS chairman M. Surender Reddy and others took part in the bandh.
