Hyderabad, June 07: Tension prevailed in Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh, bordering Karnataka, as ruling TDP today called for bandh in the district to protest the arrest of its leaders in the neighbouring state yesterday while proceeding towards the dam site of the controversial Chitravathi project. Over 40 TDP leaders, including MPs K Srinivasulu and B K Parthasarathy and five MLAs, were arrested at Bagepally in Karnataka for violating the prohibitory orders during their rally protesting against construction of dam across Chitravathi river in Kolar district. The arrests sparked off angry protests in the border district today with enraged TDP workers stopping trains and buses, organising rasta roko and burning effigies of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna. The protestors stopped Delhi-Bangalore Karnataka Express at Anantapur railway station and Mumbai-Nagarcoil Express at Nagasamudram gate for over 15 minutes and organised rasta roko on National Highway number seven, police said.

The district bandh evoked near total response with shops and business establishments downing their shutters and buses going off the roads, police said.
Bureau Report