Fuel on fire: Bharat bandh begins with protests, train blockades

The Congress-led opposition kicked off the Bharat bandh with protest marches and train blockades in several parts of the country on Monday against the steep rise in petrol and diesel prices and the depreciation of the rupee. Congress, CPI and CPM workers held marches in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam. In Telangana, Congress members held protests in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district’s Bhongir and Musheerabad bus depot in Hyderabad. Bus services of North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation were inoperational while the grand old party’s activists held a protest in Odisha capital Bhubaneswar and blocked a train in Sambalpur. Mumbai Congress unit chief Sanjay Nirupam and several followers were detained by police. Although the parties and some non-BJP state governments had promised not to inconvenience people and ensure supply of essential services, the shutdown is affecting normal life in many parts of the country.