Bhadrachalam bandh for Telangana complete

Temple town of Bhadrachalam shutdown completely on Tuesday as part of Khammam district bandh demanding to be part of Telangana State. The Bhadrachalam division was part of East Godavari before being merged into Khammam.

In 1959 Bhadrachalam Revenue Division consisting of Bhadrachalam and Nuguru Venkatapuram Taluks of East Godavari district, which were on the other side of the river Godavari in East Godavari were merged into Khammam on grounds of geographical contiguity and administrative viability. The locals are more integrated with Telangana and Andhra due to geographical reasons and are now resisting attempts to be made part of Andhra. Most of the division is bound to be submerged in the Polavaram project which is making the locals, especially tribals resist the transfer to Andhra and thereby preserve their territory. They also fear their forest reserves are bound to be exploited if it moves to a new revenue district. The Telangana JAC which was initially not very assertive on this issue has been forced to support the locals due to their persistent demand and their active participation in Telangana movement. Telangana Congressmen and TRS have demanded Khammam with Bhadrachalam be included in Telangana as it is now and it remains to be seen what the GoM would recommend to the cabinet on this issue when they finalize their report on 21 Nov.