The two-day bandh call given by the pro-United Andhra Pradesh groups against the Cabinet's nod for draft bill for bifurcation of the state has evoked a mixed response in the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions on the second day on Saturday.
Most government and private establishments remained open in Vijayawada city, one of the nerve centres of the agitation against the bifurcation. But educational institutions, some of whom have declared holiday, remained closed entirely.
TDP legislator Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, former MP Gadde Ramamohan and city unit president B Venkanna alongwith other protesters staged demonstration at the bus station, stalling district bus services for about two hours. A senior police official said no major violent incidents were reported during the past 24 hours, while security has been beefed up at sensitive locations.
Workers of TDP, YSRCP and pro-united Andhra Pradesh groups organised protests across the Seemandhra. YSR Congress Party, which initially had called for a day-long bandh, extended it on Saturday.
The Andhra Pradesh Non-Gazetted Officers Association, YSRCP and TDP leaders from Seemandhra had given separate calls for bandh. A spokesperson of the AP State Road Transport Corporation said buses were plying normally, except disruption of services for a few hours in some areas.
Police took some TDP leaders into preventive custody in Guntur district, where the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is going to inaugurate an irrigation project. Examinations scheduled for Saturday have been postponed by some universities.
Police took into custody fifteen activists for blocking the traffic in Visakhapatnam. TDP leaders blocked the roads at various places in the Krishna district.
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