Hyderabad: For the second consecutive day on Thursday, the shutdown in Telangana over the demand for a separate state hit normal life in Hyderabad and nine other districts of the region.
Shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed and buses of state-owned Road Transport Corporation (RTC) remained off the roads for the second day.
RTC restored partial bus services in the state capital but services to other parts of Telangana and other regions of the state remained suspended.
The shutdown called by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Telangana students to protest the delay in the formation of a separate Telangana state was complete on Wednesday.
After some confusion on whether the shutdown would continue for the second day, the JAC Wednesday night issued a statement that the strike would be for 48 hours. It, however, exempted buses carrying pilgrims to Medaram Jatra, a tribal fair in Warangal district, from the shutdown.
Students plan to conduct a peace rally later in the day at Osmania University, which witnessed clashes between students and police Wednesday. The violence broke out when police prevented students from carrying the body of a student in a procession.
The student had committed suicide Tuesday protesting the delay in the formation of a Telangana state. Since then, three more youths including two students ended their lives in different parts of Telangana.
Amid mounting pressure on elected representatives to resign, the JAC of political parties and other groups is also holding a crucial meeting later in the day to chalk out a future course of action to press the assembly speaker to accept the resignations of the legislators.
The student JAC Wednesday released a list of legislators including 13 ministers who have not yet submitted their resignations and have termed them "traitors" of Telangana.
The political JAC, at its meeting Wednesday evening, appealed to people to boycott the programmes of the ministers.
As many as 77 out of the 119 MLAs from Telangana region had last month submitted their resignations to the assembly speaker.
IANS
