Sporadic incidents of violence marred the Andhra Pradesh bandh called by Left parties on Saturday to protest against indiscriminate police lathicharge on their leaders and activists during the picketing of district collectorates across the state on Thursday as part of their ongoing 'Bhoo Poratam'.
Telugu Desam Party and Bharatiya Janata Party also extended their support to the bandh call given by the Left parties.
Schools, colleges, banks, shops and commercial establishments, cinema theatres and petrol bunks remained shut in many towns and cities in the state.
Government offices reported thin attendance in Hyderabad due to non-availability of public transport.
However, essential services were exempted from the purview of the bandh call.
Scores of Left activists were taken into custody at different parts of the state while they were trying to enforce the bandh or staging protests.
The police resorted to lathicharge at several places, including the RTC crossroads in Hyderabad, to disperse the agitators who took out rallies and organized rasta roko.
The protestors clashed with police and indulged in stone-pelting causing injuries to police personnel.
State-owned RTC bus services were withdrawn all over the state after Left activists damaged the buses at some places.
In the state capital, too, RTC bus services remained suspended, even as auto-rickshaws also remained off the roads, crippling the public transport services.
Late on Friday night, Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary B V Raghavulu, CPI state secretary K Narayana, CPI-M Member of Parliament P Madhu and other leaders, who were on indefinite fast at Indira Park in the city since July 22, were arrested and forcibly shifted to Gandhi Hospital at Musheerabad.
The Left activists tried in vain to prevent the police from shifting the fasting leaders.
The police justified their action on the ground that since the health condition of the fasting leaders had deteriorated on the sixth day of their fast, they shifted them to the hospital for immediate treatment.
TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu called on the Left leaders at Gandhi Hospital on Saturday.
The CPI-M and CPI leaders said their 'Bhoo Poratam' would continue till all their demands are conceded by the state government.
They demanded the state government implement the recommendations of Koneru Ranga Rao Committee in toto.
The committee was appointed by the Congress government to examine the various land laws and suggest ways and means for improving the implementation of these laws.
The other demands include land for the landless, house-sites for the poor, an independent commission to monitor the distribution of lands in the state, an ombudsman to check irregularities in the weaker sections housing scheme and withdrawal of all the cases registered against Left leaders, activists and poor people ever since 'Bhoo Poratam' was launched on May 2.
