All educational institutions and business establishments remained shut in the capital on Saturday, making the bandh call given by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) a success.
Public transport also took a severe beating with all the RTC buses being confined to the depots in the city. With bus drivers on strike in the Seemandhra region, the corporation suffered a loss of about Rs 20 crore in just one day.
Barring a few shops and hotels in Secunderabad, almost all the shops remained shut since morning on Saturday. Shops near Osmania University, Lal Bahadur Stadium, RTC Crossroads, Lakdikapul, Nampally, Vidyanagar, Habsiguda, Uppal, Tarnaka, and some areas of Nampally were completely closed. “I remember the time when the demand for a separate state was at its peak, people were out to cause damage to public property.
So keeping that in mind, I decided to close my shop today, lest something happens,” Sai Krishna, who runs a small kirana store at Tarnaka, said. The bandh call also resulted in as many as 3,800 buses going off the road in Hyderabad and about 10,000 in the Telangana region.
“Of the Rs 20-crore revenue loss, about Rs 8 crore was from Telangana region and the remaining from Andhra as the bus drivers have been off duty for several days,” according to an RTC official. Business centres like Ranigunj in Secunderabad wore a deserted look, as every shop remained closed. Many petrol pumps across the city were not operational and were shut.
Some shop owners who were hopeful that the bandh call would not be enforced were seen waiting outside their respective shops, however, took to cleaning their shutters, when they realised that the bandh was absolute, especially in areas like RTC X roads, Chikkadpally, Narayanaguda and surrounding areas. In view of the Telangana bandh, the day-to-day administration in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) came to a standstill on Saturday.
Workers failed to sweep the roads as well as lift garbage from various parts of the city. Dust bins were filled with filth and garbage, causing a nauseating smell. The head office near Tank Bund, along with all the five zonal offices and 18 circle offices wore a deserted look as workers and officials were not allowed into offices by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Joint Action Committee.
Those who tried to attend the duties were forcibly driven away by leaders of various GHMC unions. Various wings of the GHMC were locked by the TJAC-GHMC members. People who came to GHMC offices had to return empty-handed as there were no staff to address their grievances. Even issuance of birth or death certificates, release of building permissions were affected causing inconvenience to people.
The bandh impact was also felt in Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS & SB) and Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority and Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) offices due to thin staff attendance owing to APSRTC buses not plying on the roads. GHMEU president, Udhari Gopal said that the bandh was successful in all GHMC offices and that majority of the workers did not report for work voluntarily.
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