Mixed response to bandh call in AP over special status demand

The bandh call given by CPI and various groups in support of granting special status to Andhra Pradesh, as promised during the bifurcation last year, evoked mixed response across the state today.
Congress activists along with YSR Congress and other Opposition parties also extended support to the bandh, and held rallies and other forms of protest at different places in the state.
They charged the NDA government at the Centre with going back on its election promise of special status to AP and the TDP government in the state of not doing enough to realise the promise.
State-run Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) buses were confined to depots, though services were resumed at several places as the day progressed.

Schools, colleges, shops and other commercial establishments remained closed at many places.
No major untoward incident had been reported from anywhere in the state during the bandh.

Andhra Pradesh Congress president N Raghuveera Reddy and CPI state secretary K Ramakrishna led the protests in Vijayawada, the capital region of the state.
Meanwhile, in the port city of Visakhapatnam, the bandh evoked a partial response as majority of shops and business establishments remained open.
However, schools, colleges, a few commercial establishments and petrol bunks were shut. City cinema exhibitors cancelled the morning shows in their theaters.
Public sector and private sector banks, government offices and Central government organisations were functioning as usual.

The promise of special status was made to Seemandhra (new Andhra Pradesh) by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament during state bifurcation last year.
The Opposition parties alleged that BJP and TDP, who share power at the Centre and AP, have gone back on the promise since they came to power one year ago.