Hyderabad: The decades-old struggle for Telangana state yesterday entered a completely new and drastic phase with the entire region going on an indefinite mass strike, derailing normal life and bringing the work of the administration to a halt.
The strike was being observed in all the ten districts including Hyderabad. The first day of the stir passed off without any major untoward incident as the groups of people organised rasta roko (road blocks) in Hyderabad and other places in the region.
Hundreds of thousands of government employees, teachers, lecturers, doctors and workers of Singareni Collieries were in the forefront of the stir called by the Telangana Joint Action Committee and supported by Telangana Rashtra Samiti, BJP, CPI (ML) New Democracy, Telangana Praja Front of folk singer Ghaddar and various other organisations.
The government employees right from the village level to the state secretariat stayed away from their offices, while government and private schools and colleges remained shut as the organisers declared that the mass strike was the "last battle for Telangana state".
Meanwhile two rebel Congress MLAs loyal to Kadapa MP Jaganmohan Reddy, whose resignations earlier this year had been rejected, yesterday again submitted their resignations to the Speaker's office in support of Telangana state.
