After more than ten bandhs that tested his patience,the common man in the city decided not to oblige this time. The bandh call given by Telangana and Osmania JAC on Thursday was only partially successful depicting the anger and irritation among the people over frequent bandh calls. There have been more than ten bandhs in the past one and a half month in the city. Apart from educational institutions that had already declared holiday, most other business activities were unaffected by the 24 hour bandh on Thursday given by various JACs in extension to the 24 hour bandh on Wednesday.
Commercial establishments, petrolbunks, banks, malls, theatres, hotels were open and RTC buses operated services on Thursday as against complete bandhs that threw the life of common man out of gear in thelast one month. Though Telangana activists tried to forcefully closedown the stores in a few places in the city, there was severe protest from the business community . There was severe protest from the vendors when TRS activists forced them to stop selling vegetables at Monda market on Thursday.
Apart from Tarnaka, Habsiguda, a few areas in Secunderabad, Nallakunta and other areas surrounding Osmania university campus,the bandh had hardly any impact in the rest of the city on Thursday. There was no sign of bandh in old city at all. All the stores were open asusual in areas beyond Abids and Charminar. Unlike the other bandh days, traffic was normal like any other day and petrol bunks were open on Thursday in most parts of the city.
"I have kept my hotel closed for more than six times in the last one month. Bandh or not, I have to pay salaries to my employees. How many days can we keep our business closed? I have decided to keep my business open this time." said Mr N K Ramamurthy, member of AP Hotel owner's association who owns five hotels in the city.
Mall owners said that there is a limit for their patience and such repeated bandh calls have tested their patience which is why they decided to keep the stores open. Private organisations which gave permission to its employees to turn up late to work during the previous bandhs withdrew the exemption and asked all its employees to show upat work on time on Thursday.
"If there is a bandh call once in six months, it might be succesful. People are fed up of so many bandhs in a month. Government should arrest all those who disrupt public life and affect business in the state.These activists have to understand that there is a limit to the patience of people and it will only backfire if they over do it" said Mr Suraj Agarwal, past President, Federation of AP Chamber of commerce and Industry.
APSRTC which is the biggest victim of bandhs defied the bandh call on Thursday and operated 60 per cent of the buses in the GHMC limits. Executive director of APSRTC, GHMC limits Mr Narayana Swamy said that they decided to run the buses due to increasing demand from the people. Passengers were seen agitating and raising slogans in bus stations demanding RTC to run more buses on Thursday. During the last bandh in the first week of this month, more than three hundred passengers sat for a dharna in MGBS bus station demanding the government to operate buses.
"We decided to run the buses because we will not survive otherwise. RTC incurs a loss of Rs 3 crore per day in the city if we stop operations. There was increasing demand from the people and we had to oblige. Though 23 of our buses were damaged by the Telangana activists on Thursday, we operated 60 percent of our services. We can't pay salaries to our employees if we keep our buses in the bus stations every time there is a bandh." Narayana Swamy said.
Bandh affect was seen in outskirts like LB Nagar, Jeedimetla, Medchel and other national highways where the activists stalled the traffic for sometime.
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