Bifurcation: Seemandhra continues to simmer with protests

Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions continued to simmer for the fourth day today with protests against Congress's decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and creating Telangana state.
Students and government employees gathered in large numbers on roads in most of the cities in the two regions, including Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati.
Protests and demonstrations were also reported from Chittor, Kadapa, Anantapur, East and West Godavari, Guntur and Krishna districts.
State-run APSRTC has suspended its bus services in these regions in view of the agitation.
A spokesperson of the transporter said it incurred more than Rs 15 crore loss in the past four days on account of damage done to busses and service disruption.

"Our regional managers are in touch with district police officials and seeking their advise on running bus services to some of the sensitive places. Almost 40 per cent of the total services in the region were affected due to recent developments," the spokesperson told PTI.

Educational and commercial establishments remained partially closed for the fourth day and in some regions petrol pumps were also closed.
Dwaraka Tirumala Rao, Inspector General of Police, Coastal Andhra, said the situation was under control and no untoward incidents were reported.
Rajeev Ratan, IG, Rayalaseema region, said the situation was under control and police arrested some persons in connection with vandalizing of statues.