Citizens scurry to stock up on essentials

HYDERABAD: People lined up at petrol bunks within an hour of the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) issuing a call for a bandh on Friday to protest what it said was the “fascist attitude” of the government in meddling in the mourning of a Telangana youth who committed suicide near Parliament on Wednesday.The bandh call, the second this month, is once again likely to throw normal life out of gear across Telangana on Friday.TJAC called the bandh in protest against the central and state government’s “collusion” to muffle the mourning of the suicide of M Adhireddy who hanged himself from a tree at India Gate in Delhi in support of Telangana statehood.Faced with another on the morrow, people rushed to stock up on essentials.Universities in Telangana hastened to postpone their exams. The NTR University of Health Sciences postponed counselling for medical college admissions. Private schools declared a holiday on Friday.Hyderabad education officials, however, said government schools would function as usual. ‘’We directed headmasters to take an appropriate decision on closure of schools depending on the situation,’’ said Kasaiah, district education officer of Hyderabad.Ma n y s h o p s a n d establishments are likely to remain shut on Friday.However, APSRTC and South Central Railway (SCR) have decided to run bus and train services as usual. The railway will review the situation on Friday morning and take a decision whether to run services or not.An emergency meeting of the APSRTC management was held to take stock of the prevailing situation. Officials said buses would ply as usual. The corporation too said it will seek a situation report from the police on the morning and take a call then.Security is being tightened across Telangana. Paramilitary forces have been briefed about the situation and the measures to be taken.‘’All SPs and police commissioners have been alerted and measures will be taken to prevent any incident,’’ the DGP for law and order and police spokesperson M Ratan told Express. He said that there are sufficient forces available to tackle the situation.The BJP, TRS and CPIML New Democracy have expressed support to the TJAC bandh. However, several leaders said emergency services have been exempted from the bandh.