Hyderabad:
Emotions are running high at the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat, the most recent nerve centre of a bitter and fragile divide between the pro- and anti-Telangana forces in the state.
The Secretariat employees, divided into the Seemandhra and Telangana camps, have halted all work, thereby making the common man pay unfairly for politically-charged protests.
Despite waiting for three hours, Narsing Rao could not go inside the Secretariat. The bills for the government contract, which he managed to get after borrowing money at high interest rates, won't be cleared now.
"How can they do this to us? They say either Seemandhra or Telangana... and no work is getting done,'' he says.
Ramesh, HR manager with a private firm, has been doing the rounds of the Secretariat for two weeks now. "There is no one inside. Shouldn't these officials and offices come under the Essential Services Maintenance Act?'' he wonders.
On Tuesday, the Hyderabad police banned all demonstrations and rallies in the city and imposed prohibitory orders within two km of the Andhra Pradesh Assembly and the Secretariat for a week.
By Tuesday evening, however, an organization representing the Seemandhra employees was permitted to hold a meeting on Saturday.
A similar request, however, by the Osmania University Joint Action Committee and the Telangana Joint Action Committee for a rally on the same date was rejected.
The pro-Telangana front has alleged that the police granted permission to the anti-Telangana group under political pressure.
Despite the Centre saying it is working on a Home Ministry note outlining the new Telangana state within the next 20 days, a majority of leaders in Andhra Pradesh Congress have opposed the move to bifurcate the state.