Novel protest demonstrations highlighting the anguish of agitated farmers against the Centre’s new farm laws and road blockades by the demonstrators at several locations marked the Bharat Bandh called by the farmers’ front, paralysing normal life in the former composite Khammam district on Tuesday.
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The TSRTC bus services were crippled as the protesters laid siege to the bus depots and staged road rokos in Khammam and various other parts of the district. Activists of the Left parties including the CPI(M), the CPI and the CPI (ML-ND) took to the streets in Khammam steadfastly supporting the ongoing agitation by anguished farmers against the new agricultural laws.
Cadres of the main Opposition Congress party and the ruling TRS also held demonstrations at multiple locations separately across the district in support of Bharat Bandh.
Transport Minister P. Ajay Kumar along with Khammam MP Nama Nageswara Rao squatted on the main road at the Telangana Thalli circle in Khammam. They displayed a black flag on board a bullock cart as a mark of protest against the new farm Acts.
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Several children clad in farming attire staged a novel demonstration with ploughs under the aegis of the PDSU near the bus stand in Khammam.
They enacted a scene on the roadside in a symbolic protest against the alleged attempts to “handover” the farm sector to big corporate entities and the strong resistance from the agitated farmers to the move. The demonstration drew the attention of the passersby.
The usually busy stretch (Kusumanchi-Khammam-Aswaraopet) of the National Highway 365 BB wore a deserted look during the Bandh in Khammam district.
In Bhadradri-Kothagudem district, activists of the trade unions affiliated to the CITU, the AITUC and others staged protest rallies in Kothagudem, Manuguru, Palvancha and Yellandu in the industrial belt of the district demanding immediate repeal of the new farm laws.
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Sources in the State-run Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) said the coal mining activities continued normally on Tuesday as the trade unions have not given strike call but extended their support to Bharat Bandh.