Telangana bandh over farm loan waiver begins

The Telangana bandh called by Opposition parties including Congress, TDP, BJP and others in support of their demand that the TRS government implement its farm loan waiver promise at one go rather than in a phased-manner, began across the state today.

Senior leaders of Congress, TDP, BJP and the Left parties held protests outside different bus stations in the state since early hours of the day to prevent the buses of state-run Telangana State Road Transport Corporation from plying following which many of them were taken into police custody.

The leaders of TDP, BJP and Congress leaders, protesting at Jubiless Bus Station (JBS) in the city have been taken to police station at Bollarum, TDP claimed in a release.

Telangana TDP president L Ramana, party floor leader in the Assembly E Dayakar Rao, BJP floor leader K Laxman and about 200 workers of various parties have been taken into custody at the JBS, Congress MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, who was also picked up, said.

Former minister and Congress leader D Sridhar Babu and former party MP Ponnam Prabhakar held a protest in Karimnagar district.

They demanded that the government implement the farm loan waiver (to the tune of about Rs 8,500 crore) at one go rather than in a phased manner as a means to provide relief to farmers who have been committing suicides due to agrarian distress. The government had paid about Rs 8,000 crore earlier.

The leaders appealed to the people to voluntarily participate in the shutdown to mount pressure on the government.