The Bharat Bandh, sponsored by the farmers’ associations, was near total and peaceful in Chittoor district on Monday, with no untoward incident being reported.
Activists of the Telugu Desam Party and Left parties took to roads right from the early hours to enforce the bandh.
As the APSRTC had confined its fleet to their depots from Sunday midnight till Monday afternoon, and the private buses too went off the roads, the impact of bandh was visible on the national and State highways.
While most of the commercial establishments in Tirupati and Chittoor municipal corporations remained shut at the arterial junctions, some were functioning in other municipalities and rural areas.
The impact of bandh was felt more along the inter-State routes and rural villages along Karnataka and Tamil Nadu border, forcing the daily wagers and regular commuters to take autorickshaws and two-wheelers in the absence of RTC buses. The police had intensified patrolling on the highways and surveillance at main junctions of various towns and mandal headquarters to monitor the bandh.
