Bandh call by JAC evokes partial response in AP dist

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The students of JAC had given the bandh call yesterday in protest against the midnight's preventive arrest of 28 students in a driving school near Nandigama in this district while they were on a 'Padayatra'.

Reports said only few schools and colleges were closed in the district in respone to the call and remaining were functioning as usual in view of the annual examinations slated in March and April.

The Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had also extended its support to the student's bandh.

In all 53 students of different universities had participated in the 'Padayatra'. On February 6 midnight, a large number of policemen swooped on Bose Driving School at Munagacharla Village near Nandigama and arrested them.

Later, police allegedly confined the students to a police dormitory in Machilipatnam and released them yesterday afternoon after registering a case under section 151 of the CrPC.

The students from 13 universities in Andhra and Rayalaseema regions joined hands and began a 'Maha Padayatra' from the Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU) campus on February 4 to Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad for what they called protecting the unity of Telugu-speaking people.

The protestors were supporting unified state, rejecting outright the moves to divide the state by constituting committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge Bellur Narayanaswamy Srikrishna.

--UNI