'Cooking on roads' protests in Telangana
Hyderabad, July 12 (IANS) The agitation for separate statehood to Telangana continued with cooking-on-roads protests across the region Tuesday, while the indefinite fast by Osmania University students here continued for the second day.
Activists of Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) organised the unique protest in nine districts as part of its ongoing agitation. Since the protest was held in Hyderabad last month, the JAC took up the programme in the rest of the region this time.
Leaders of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other constituents of JAC participated in 'vanta varpu' in Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Medak, Adilabad, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar and other districts in the region.
Leaders and activists of political and non-political groups set up huge kitchens on the roads, cooked the food and ate it together. A large number of women participated in the protest, demanding that the central government immediately initiate the process for formation of the separate state.
BJP state president G. Kishan Reddy participated in the protest in Warangal town.
Meanwhile, the indefinite fast by students of Osmania University here continued for the second day Tuesday. Police and central paramilitary forces remained deployed outside the varsity to tackle any protest. Police maintained that the students launched the fast without taking permission from the authorities.
The Osmania University Joint Action Committee (OU JAC) has called for closure of all educational institutions in Telangana Wednesday.
It declared support to Telangana road blockade called by JAC Thursday. The students also plan to hold a march to assembly Friday to demand that the speaker accept the resignations of the legislators from the region.
As many as 100 members of the state assembly from the region submitted their resignations last week.