Shutdown for separate statehood cripples life in Telangana - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The shutdown in Andhra Pradesh's Telangana region on Wednesday demanding separate statehood for the region has paralysed life there. Apprehending violence, South Central Railways has cancelled 165 suburban and local trains on Wednesday in view of Telangana shutdown. The Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) has cancelled 5,200 buses in the region. Prohibitory orders under Section 144 Cr P C have been clamped across the Telangana region, and thousands of police and para-military personnel have been deployed to maintain law and order. The shutdown, which is the fourth in the last one month, has also hit Brand Hyderabad hard Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) had to move its annual meeting out of Hyderbad to Chennai Meanwhile, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) President K Chandrashekhar Rao has said he was ready for talks but the Centre should make a clear stand on statehood issue. "We are ready for talks with the centre. But the condition is Centre should make a clear statement on Telangana and allay apprehensions created following Union Home Minister P Chidambaram's statement on December 23 to assuage the feelings of people from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions," he added. Earlier, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the Centre would soon take a firm decision on the Telangana statehood issue, ministers belonging to the Telangana region have refuted suggestions that they will withdraw their resignations. They have asked the UPA Government at the Centre to come out with a definite time frame for the formation of the Telangana state. Earlier, the ministers had sent a common resignation letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi in which they pressed for Telangana statehood.