Telangana Chief Minister-designate calls for shutdown today

Hyderabad: TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister-designate K. Chandrasekhar Rao called for a Telangana shutodwn on Thursday to protest against the Centre’s decision to merge seven mandals in Khammam district that are to be submerged in the Polavaram Irriga-tion Project, with Andhra Pradesh.

This is Mr Rao’s first bandh call after formation of the new state of Telangana and it will be almost a government-sponsored bandh, though the TRS government will be formally sworn in on June 2.

(Read: Ordinance gives more mandals to Andhra Pradesh)

Public transportation services are likely to be hit badly as 10,000 APSRTC buses will come to a screeching halt on Thursday due to the Telangana bandh call by the TRS. Telangana Chief Minister-in-waiting K. Chandrasekhar Rao has called for the bandh opposing the Centre’s move to merge seven mandals of Telangana into Seemandhra, as a fallout of the Polavaram water project. The ordinance was passed by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.

The entire APSRTC machinery in the twin cities will come to a halt including local as well as long-distance buses to various destinations. The impact is expected to be total in the 10 Telangana districts as the APSRTC unions are participating in the bandh. Autorickshaw drivers’ unions are also supporting the bandh call. Railway services, however, will remain unaffected and there is no change in the pattern of rail services.

Meanwhile, the Post Graduate Engineering Common Entrance Test, scheduled to be held on Thursday, has also been postponed to Saturday May 31. Examinations under the purview of the Kakatiya University and Osmania University have been postponed. The Intermediate Advanced Supplementary exams have also been postponed. Exams of the two papers of mathematics, zoology and history were scheduled to be held in the morning and afternoon, but have been postponed by the Board of Intermediate Education.