HYDERABAD: With the rail roko over and autos back to business, Hyderabadis came streaming out of their homes Monday morning, but the Telangana movement’s leaders soon scuppered any hopes of a return to normalcy in the days ahead.The Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) announced a Hyderabad bandh on Sept 30 and a three-day rail roko on oct. 9-11. Plus, the intervening days will see several other agitational activities (see graphic above).The drift of things indicates that the epicentre of the Sakala Janula Samme is shifting to Hyderabad from the Telangana districts. There was enough evidence of it on Monday, with agitators besieging government establishments and hectoring officials for threatening action against truant government staff. And in a new dimension, Telangana agitators turned their attention to the city’s IT district, Madhapur, which had felt little of the heat of the agitation so far. Agitators blocked the roads to Madhapur in a bid to prevent employees from reaching offices. After T activists held up traffic for a couple of hours, police entered the scene and restored a semblance of order.One of the oddities of the day’s action was the avid participation of minister Komatireddy Venkata Reddy and several other Congress elected reps, each eager to showcase their Telangana credentials. Venkata Reddy was in the thick of things at a siege of Regional Transport Commsioner Heeralal Samaria’s office for invoking show-cause notices to striking staff. An assistant transport commissioner was roughed up and the commissioner was badgered into withdrawing the notices.But the government, after a review in the evening, hung tough. Chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy ordered that all punitive action initiated against striking staff would go ahead and any coerced withdrawal of such orders would stand cancelled. The chief minister also wanted cases booked against those who manhandled an assistant transport commissioner.The APSRTC too had been bullied into desisting from action against 1,350 contract staff.With the chief minister signalling a toughening of his attitude, a like response is anticipated from the agitators and the Sakala Janula is fast taking the shape of an eyeball-to-eyeball glare match between him and the Telangana movement.In a glimpse of that, the agitators took their show right to the doorstep of the chief minister’s office at Secretariat on Monday. Telangana government staff picketed C Block and some women employees even played Batukamma and Kolatam for a while.In the press of the agitation so far, Telangana Congress leaders have clearly been discomfited, and feel the need to show some animation.In response, some of them left in batches for Delhi to beg the high command to do something. One such traveller, R Damodar Reddy promised that this would be his last trip to Delhi.If the high tower does not honour the sentiments of the people of Telangana, they may leave the Congress and form a new party.
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