Andhra Pradesh: Seemandhra powerless as shutdown continues over Telangana

India Creating States

As large areas of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions reeled under power outages and shortage of essential goods on the fourth day of the shutdown on Monday, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy called the various associations and employees unions of Seemandhra which are on an indefinite strike for talks on October 9.

Telangana crisis: Seemandhra ministers firm on resignations

With over 30,000 electricity employees on strike, power generation and supply has taken a big hit and hundreds of villages in the coastal districts have received no electricity since Sunday afternoon. More areas of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, Krishna (East) and West Godavari plunged into darkness on Monday. Officials said power fluctuations caused outages which could not be repaired as the employees are on strike.

Confident of achieving an amicable solution: Shinde

Raising the banner of revolt against his party, Reddy said, “I have told the Congress several times, in no uncertain terms, that it is a big mistake to divide the state. I think it is a very harsh decision and not at all in the interest of the state. You cannot solve a problem by creating a bigger problem.”

Related: The politics beneath ‘Telangana’ move

He said, “I cannot take a blanket order from my party. I am concerned about the crores of Seemandhra people whose concerns have not been taken care of. I won’t like to be the last Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.”

In Delhi, four Congress union ministers who resigned last week — M M Pallam Raju, D Purandeshwari, Kotla Surya Prakash Reddy and K Chiranjeevi — met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and urged him to accept their resignations. They have decided not to attend office. Two other ministers — K S Rao and Killi Kripa Rani — also accompanied them, but it was not clear whether they pressed for their resignations to be accepted….

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