Striking ‘power’ employees sink Andhra Pradesh into darkness
Even as most of Andhra Pradesh plunged into darkness on Monday due to the anti-Telangana strike by power sector employees in Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema region, Delhi too witnessed a day of high drama staged by pro-unity actors like TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and a pack of Union Ministers belonging to the State.
The power sector employees on strike brought down the power generation by nearly 5,000 MW in the State.
As the strike entered the third day on Monday and Eastern Power Distribution Company employees at Visakhapatanam also joined the stir, all the nine districts of coastal Andhra and four districts of Rayalaseema were without power. Apart from the train services, many other emergency services, including the functioning of hospitals and water filtering and purification plants, have stopped working.
In New Delhi, after starting a fast-unto-death on Andhra Bhavan premises on Monday, Chandrababu Naidu added a dose of Italian to his protest, obviously targeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Explaining the shutdown in Andhra, Naidu used the Italian word “immobilismo” to explain the ground situation. “ Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema are immobilismo. Things are at a standstill. Total standstill,” he said.
Naidu accused the Congress of playing politics in view of the lok Sabha polls. He accused the Congress and the Centre of not holding discussions with stake holders and called the Cabinet decision to bifurcate the State as “arbitrarily”. Naidu said
‘Seema-Andhra region’ has plunged into chaos and people are losing confidence in the political system.
Authorities in Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in the national Capital were in a fix over Naidu sitting on a fast-unto-death over division of the State. leader of the Opposition in the AP Assembly made a request on behalf of Naidu for permission to use the conference hall for a press meet.
But after the Press meet, Naidu straightaway went to a concrete platform on the premises of Andhra Bhavan and announced that he was launching his fast.
After sometime, officials got restive and talked to Naidu's son lokesh and Telugu Desam leaders, including its lok Sabha leader Namma Nageshwar Rao, in a bid to persuade the former Chief Minister not to continue his fast since permission has not been granted for it. Naidu refused to oblige and said he was from the State, he would continue his protest there.
Asked whether Andhra Bhavan authorities would lodge a complaint with police to evict Naidu, an official said the decision has to be taken by the Government in Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, Union Ministers from Andhra region continued their resignation drama on Monday too. This time all the Ministers who claimed to have put in their papers, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday evening. After the 30 minute talks with PM, the Ministers from region claimed that “PM promised to look into their request.”
Ministers Pallam Raju, K Chiranjeevi, D Purandeswari and Surya Prakash Reddy said they requested the PM to accept their resignations. However, another Minister KS Rao was not present in the full-media glare.
Addressing the media after meeting Prime Minister, the four Union Ministers of the Congress put all blame on TDP chief N Chadrababu Naidu and YSR party chief Jagan Mohan Reddy for the “dramatic steps.” All the four ministers were seen competing with each other to air their views on bifurcation of the State.
Power supply in Hyderabad and some parts of Telangana was affected but the worst hit were the Seemandhra districts.“There is no power in the city since morning and there is no hope that it will return even by the evening,” police official Ram Prasad told this correspondent over phone from Visakhapatanam.
Many major cities, including commercial capital Vijaywada and temple town Tirupati, remained under darkness on Sunday night.
Train services were the hardest hit. As many 40 trains under South Central Railway and Eastern Railway have been cancelled and some have been curtailed.
The train service between Visakhapatanam and Bhubanveshwar were also hit hard as there was power supply only on one track. Some trains were running four hours behind the schedule.
Officials at the Visakhapatanam based Eastern Railway said that they were trying to improve services by pressing the diesel locomotives in to use. “We have kept 170 diesel engines ready,” they said.
Functioning of Visakhapatanam airport and several major hospitals across the two regions was also hit. Thermal power stations at Vijaywada and Kadapa and the hydel power generation units at Nagarajuna Sagar and Srisailam have stopped working. Same was the situation at Sileru as more than 30,000 power employees rejected the appeal of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and others to end the strike.
Patients at the two major hospitals in the regions, King George Hospital in Visakhapatanam and Sri Venkateshwara Institute of Medical Sciences in Tirupati were also facing a lot of hardship in the absence of power.
Meanwhile Sporadic incidents of violence and clashes between the police and agitators continued on Monday at many places in coastal Andhra and Rayala seema regions. The normal life in the two regions of Andhra Pradesh remained paralysed for the fifth consecutive day on Monday.