Normal life was hit in many parts of the old undivided Khammam district on Friday as the TSRTC buses stayed off the roads and shops downed their shutters for most part of the day owing to the Bharat Bandh called by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) in protest against the Centre's new farm laws.
Cadres of the CPI (M), the CPI, the CPI (ML-ND), the Congress, among a host of other organisations laid siege to the bus stations and depots in Khammam, Kothagudem, Bhadrachalam and elsewhere in the former composite Khammam district at the crack of dawn.
Members of various unions representing farmers, labourers, and people from various walks of life joined the protests expressing their solidarity with the ongoing farmers’ protest against the new farm laws at the Delhi borders, which entered the 120th day on Friday.
They blocked the movement of the buses, following which most of the buses of the public transport entity’s total fleet of around 600 buses of the Khammam region confined to the bus depots/bus stands across both Khammam and Bhadradri-Kothagudem districts.
However, the TSRTC sources claimed that the inter-district and inter-State bus services resumed by afternoon.
In Bhadrachalam of Bhadradri-Kothagudem district, senior CPI(M) leader and former Bhadrachalam Member of Parliament Dr Midiam Babu Rao led a protest near the bus stand in the temple town.
Activists of the party and its frontal organisations squatted on the main road demanding urgent repeal of the Centre’s three farm laws, withdrawal of the Electricity Amendment Bill and plans to privatise several public sector undertakings.
In Khammam, artistes of the cultural wings affiliated to the Left parties hogged the limelight during the protest at the bus station on Friday morning.
They turned the deserted premises in front of the bus station into a virtual street theatre to amplify the voices of protesting farmers.
Clad in their traditional stage attire, the artistes pepped up the spirit of the demonstrators by presenting a folk art demonstration.
They sang songs eulogising the ongoing farmer’ protest at the Delhi’s borders, hailing it as a historic and resilient movement against “anti-farmer” and “pro-corporate” policies.
