Lord Balaji pilgrims should check before going to Tirumala

New Delhi, July 31: Pilgrims going to Tirumala hills for the darshan of Lord Venkateshwara or Lord Balaji, should check before travelling to the holy town as prohibitory orders have been clamped in Tirupati today due to agitation over Telangana.

Section 144 has been imposed in Tirupati on Wednesday. A bandh has been called in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.

In Tirupati and some other places, protesters deflated tyres of vehicles.

Protests began in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions on Wednesday, a day after the decision was taken to divide Andhra Pradesh and form a separate Telangana state.

Road transport came to a standstill while shops, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed in the two regions, usually referred to as Seemandhra.

The shutdown called by Samaikya Andhra or United Andhra Joint Action Committee has evoked near total response in all major towns. Opposing the division of the state, students and activists of various groups took to the streets.
Effigies of Congress president Sonia Gandhi were burnt during the protests. The protesters raised slogans of 'Jai Samaikya Andhra' and squatted on the roads.

Buses of state-owned Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) could not come out of the depots as protesters staged sit-ins at all nine districts of coastal Andhra and four of Rayalaseema.

The shutdown hit normal life in Visakhapatnam, Vijayanagaram, Eluru, Kakinada, Vijayawada, Guntur, Nellore, Ongole, Chittoor, Anantapur, Kadapa, Kurnool and other towns.

The protesters blocked traffic on national and state highways at some places. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded due to protests on the Vijayawada-Hyderabad and the Chennai-Bhubaneswar highways.