Visakhapatnam bandh: Left continues to protest against Union Budget, over 1300 state buses halted

HYDERABAD: Protesting against the Union Budget 2018, the Left parties in Andhra Pradesh called for a shutdown on Thursday.

More than 1300 Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) buses were stopped in Visakhapatnam during the bandh.

Visakhapatnam: Bandh called by Left parties in protest against #UnionBudget2018 #AndhraPradesh pic.twitter.com/LnZYfIJyMZ — ANI (@ANI) February 8, 2018

Raising objections against the "injustice" done to the state, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), students and labour organisations called it an "anti-people" budget.

In a press release jointly issued by the Left parties earlier, they urged people to join and support the bandh in large numbers.

These parties, in the release, alleged that the Centre had ignored the state while doling out huge sums of money to states which are heading for polls in the near future.

The Left parties added that the Union Budget 2018 had ignored the poor and neglected the country's rural economy.

The oppositions said the Budget had completely neglected the state and there were no specific budgetary allocations for the construction of the new capital, Amaravati or any other major project like the mega Polavaram irrigation project on the Godavari.

There was no mention of the promised railway zone at Visakhapatnam and the allocations to the central educational institutions sanctioned for the State were paltry.

The Congress and the YSR Congress Party have also lent support to the bandh call.

(With agency inputs)