Hyderabad: Normal life was hit in many parts of Telangana as the shutdown called by the opposition parties to protest against farmers’ suicides brought the state to a halt on Saturday. However the impact of the shutdown in Hyderabad was partial and its impact was largely limited to bus services.

Thousands of opposition workers including top leaders of the Congress, Telugu Desam, BJP and the left parties were arrested by police in Hyderabad and nine other districts.

The opposition had called for the strike to press its demand for completely writing off farmers’ loans and for other measures to reassure the farming community.

Telangana State Congress president Uttam Kumar Reddy, TDP state President L. Ramanna, BJP President G. Kishan Reddy and senior CPI leader K. Narayana, TDP floor leader in the state assembly E. Dayakar Rao and the BJP floor leader K. Lakshman were among top opposition figures arrested in Hyderabad when they led a sit-in protest at the Imlibun bus stand and Jubilee bus stand in Hyderabad. Congress leader in the Legislative Council Mohammad Ali Shabbiar was detained at Mehdipatnam bus depot while leading a protest.

The buses remained confined to the bus depots as the agitators did not allow them to move out. Similar scenes were also witnessed in Warangal, Nalgonda, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Medak, Mehbubnagar, Adilabad and Khammam districts.

Workers of different parties wearing their respective party colours took out motorcycle rallies and processions shouting slogans and carrying their flags and placards against the Telangana Rashtra Samiti government. Roads in Nalgonda and Warangal districts wore a deserted look. However the impact of the strike call was partial in Adilabad district where most of the shops and business establishments remained open.

While the Telugu Desam was the first to call for the strike, the showroom of Heritage Food owned by the party president N. Chandrababu Naidu’s family was seen doing business in Saroornagar area of Hyderabad.

Alleging that more than 1,400 farmers have committed suicide, Congress president Uttam Kumar Reddy said, “the government has miserably failed in coming to the help of the distressed farmers. We want one-time waiver of the farmers’ loans to ease the pressure on them.”

It was for the first time since the formation of Telangana state in June last year that the opposition parties had called for a collective strike on any issue against the TRS government.

However the state government dismissed the strike as a failure. Stressing that the government was doing everything possible to help the farmers and implementing its policy of waiving the farmers’ loans in a phased manner, senior minister K. Taraka Rama Rao alleged that the opposition had entered into an opportunistic understanding to disrupt normal life. “Why these parties have suddenly remembered the farmers and [are] shedding crocodile tears for them when they did nothing while being in power,” he asked.

State home minister N. Narasimha Reddy said that though the strike was called on a general holiday, it had little effect on normal life. “Is it justified to try to derail a government which is only one and a half year old when these parties did nothing during decades of their rule,” he said.

He alleged that the opposition’s strike was aimed at damaging Telangana and benefiting Andhra Pradesh.