Agitators halt AIRs tranmission for 35 minitues at Beed

Beed, Maharashtra, Jan 31 (UNI) Student activists today interrupted the transmission of All India Radio (AIR) for nearly 35 minutes and locked the local Post Office from outside, during an all-party bandh to highlight the long-standing demand for Beed-Parali-Nagar railway line.

Talking to UNI, Superintendent of Police Santoshkumar Rastogi said the police have arrested about 17 activists.

''We had to use force against the activists, who had stormed into the AIRs station,'' '' Mr Rastogi said adding that the activists have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for rioting, illegal confinement of the government employees and damaging the public property.

The transmission of the AIRs beed station was affected between 1200 hrs to 1235 hrs, the AIR sources said.

The all party bandh today was sponsored by the Railway Janandolan Samiti (RJS).

However, the RJS had given an appeal of district bandh in the backdrop of Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's visit to neighbouring Nanded district.

The RJS has been demanding immediate steps towards construction of Beed-Parali-Nagar railway line, which was sanctioned about 15 years ago by the railway ministry.

Earlier in the day, a delegation of the RJS led by Hanumant Upre and Namdeo Chavan handed over a memorandum listing out their demand to the Resident District Collector (RDC) Mohan Katte.

UNI