Hyderabad: The 13 districts of Andhra and Rayalaseema regions were virtually shut in protest against the division of the state on the first day of general strike by government employees belonging to the two regions on Tuesday.
The strike was complete hitting normal life the two regions while it was partial in government offices in state capital. More than 90 per cent staff skipped duties in the two regions paralysing governance.
The strike also gave boost to the agitations due to participation of lakhs of employees who went around in their towns in procession and cooked food on roads. The electricity employees held candle light processions in all the towns.
In several districts including Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Guntur and Nellore bandh was observed and all the commercial establishments and educational institutions were shut down. The owners of retail petrol outlets also called for a voluntary closure for two days.
The RTC buses were completely off the roads in the two regions. The Group of Ministers invited the striking employees for talks on Wednesday, but the APNGOs association threatened to boycott negotiations if the government failed to ensure a peaceful atmosphere for Seemandhra employees to observe strike in Hyderabad.
“Our employees, in particular women, were treated badly during our protests by Telangana employees. In Gruhakalpa office complex they (T employees) used abusive language,” said P. Ashok Babu, president of APNGOs association. “Imagine our plight if AP is divided,” he pointed out.
“Various employees’ associations will meet in Vijayawada or Guntur on August 16 to chalk out programmes and intensify the agitation. We will lead a delegation to Parliament to meet leaders of other parties and present our concerns,” Ashok Babu said.
APNGO strike turns grim
Shouting slogans, the gathering of Andhra Pradesh Non-Gazette employees in the health department at Vaidya Vidhayan Parishad turned ugly on Tuesday morning. The Telangana Non-Gazette employees tried to persuade the officers from their region into joining them.
The two groups went around the seven offices located in the premises urging people from the two regions to join them. While the APNGOs had already issued notice to the director of health and medical education, the presence of TNGOs was impromptu and it took the health officials by surprise.
The two groups stood on the opposite sides of the compound and shouted slogans, one for united Andhra while the other urging the Centre not to go back on Telangana. Of the 117 employees of APNGO, 25 were absent and those present were not willing to work. The staff strength in most of the health departments was minimal.
A senior officer in charge of health and medical education said, “The diagnostic process and distribution of free drugs for seasonal fever, cough and cold in districts is being affected due to the ongoing agitation. The continuous agitation will affect the services if no solution is found.”
12,000 buses go off road
With APSRTC unions  going on strike in the Seemandhra region,  traffic movement came to a halt  on the first day of the indefinite strike. Nearly 12,000 buses from 123 depots went off the roads as 70,000 APSRTC employees in the Seemandhra region joined the strike.
The corporation has already lost Rs 98 crore due to the ongoing Samaikhyandhra agitation,  additional  losses due to the indefinite strike are expected to increase manifold. Bus traffic in the Telangana region  dropped by 20 per cent on the first day. The  strike by APSRTC Employees Union is in protest of the bifurcation of the state and the Telangana Mazdoor Union is for expediting the process of formation of Telangana.
APSRTC MD A.K. Khan said  the corporation was losing Rs 3.5 crore every day and the overall collection has dipped by Rs 9 crore per day. Khan  held a meeting with chief secretary P.K. Mohanty at the Secretariat.
He said, “The APSRTC has suffered a loss of Rs 98 crore since the announcement of a separate state. Losses would continue to mount if the agitation continues and will push APSRTC into a further crisis. The APSRTC  is already reeling under a loss of Rs 3,000 crore.”
The APSRTC said that buses will be run only at night in case of emergency requirements and that too only as far as Vijayawada.
RTI shows 1,538 buses destroyed in 8 years
Whether it is Telangana or the Seemandhra agitations, it is the APSRTC buses that have been bearing the brunt of public ire, resulting in losses of crores of rupees to the public exchequer.
As many as 1,538 state buses have been damaged over the last eight years, causing an additional burden of more than Rs 10 crore on the state on repairs. However, RTC buses are not insured against rioting or any other cause, which meant that the brunt of agitators going berserk had to be borne by the state.
According to replies to an RTI filed by a social activist G.A. Raju, as many as 1,538 RTC buses have been destroyed in agitations and riots over the past eight years. However, conspicuously, the RTC said it did not have data on the number of buses destroyed for the year 2011-12.
Most buses were destroyed during the year 2009-10 when rioters damaged nearly 872 public transport buses while another 301 were destroyed during 2004-05. Officials said much of this loss could be due to the Telangana agitations, but with Seemandhra region boiling, more losses could be expected from the coastal and Rayalaseema regions.
The state had to spend about Rs 10.54 crore on repairing buses which only were partially damaged. The destruction of buses also means that hundreds of bus days are lost each year.