Telangana polls: People rush home to cast vote

Hyderabad: Thousands of voters left the city to travel to their native constituencies to cast their votes on the December 7 elections. Bus terminuses and railway stations in the city were crowded with passengers heading home, and city streets were relatively empty.

The Road Transport Corporation diverted city buses from Hyderabad to other districts to cater to the rush.

The Election Commission has declared a public holiday on December 7, Friday, for the voting. Information technology companies too were brought into the ambit of the order. The day being a Friday, many planned to have a long weekend at their native places.

Most of them left for their constituencies after the end of working hours. Some others whose districts are further away left earlier in the day. Many schools had declared holidays on Thursday as well.

Mr Ramancha Harish and Mr T. Naveen Kumar, who are employed in private companies, were headed for Karimnagar and Tandur respectively. Though the two towns are relatively close to the city - Karimnagar is three hours away and Tandur one - they opted to leave a day early.

An RTC official from Hyderabad division said, “We are witnessing passenger traffic from the morning and it has been increasing gradually. In order to meet the requirements, we have diverted 382 buses from Hyderabad division to other districts.”

According to information, the rush was more towards Mahbubnagar, Hanamkonda and Karimnagar. The RTC denied rumours that it was charging the passengers extra.

According to railway officials, there was a more than 10 per cent in increase in the number of passengers at the city’s major stations at Secunderabad, Hyderabad and Kacheguda. Officials estimated that there were 15,000 more travellers on Thursday, over the usual 1.25 lakh passengers that the stations handle on a daily basis at this time of the year.