Curfew continues, citizens suffer

HYDERABAD: The curfew bound Madannapet and Saidabad areas continued to look like neighbourhoods in a ghost town on the third day after the clashes. With no relaxation in sight, medicines and other essential commodities were out of reach for residents as barricades at crossroads and bylanes strictly curtailed all movement. A ripple effect was seen along the Madina-Shah Ali Banda stretch as all shops in the area were closed.
A visibly concerned K Rajasekhar from Madannapet Mandi said that he had been trying to take his four-year-old daughter suffering from gastroenteritis to hospital for hours. “I had to reason with the police repeatedly before being let to go.”
An acute shortage of vital medicines hit the areas owing to the clampdown. Pharmacist K Prakash from Vijay Medicals in Madannapet said, “We are on our last reserves of paracetamol, antibiotics and injections. On many occasions doctors have prescribed alternatives but they too are running out.” Prakash’s shop is a few furlongs from the first barricade at Chanchalguda Jail. He said that the situation will worsen if the patients in the area didn’t receive their medication on time.
Samaritans were seen covertly distributing milk packets to residents. Away from the watchful eye of the police, hands from doors and windows silently accepted the altruistic offers. However, many like Saud Engineer from Saidabad weren’t as lucky as the others. “Most houses in my locality have children and have run out of milk. We have been trying to tell our relatives living in other parts of town to get supplies for us but unfortunately they haven’t got past the barricades. Also, we had to shell out more than 40% extra to buy groceries from the neighbourhood shop,” he said.
It was a field day for cattle as tons of vegetables in the 300-odd shops of the Madannapet market lay rotting. Vendors were clearly distraught as a handful of them visited their shops to assess losses. V Bhagyamma rued that she had incurred a huge loss as more than a quintal of produce she had bought had no buyers. “There are vegetables worth at least Rs 40,000 in my shop. There are no buyers because of the violence. I pray that all this madness stops soon.” Another vendor, Junaid Ali, said it was next to impossible to recover the losses that had run into lakhs of rupees.
Other parts of the Old City witnessed a curfew-like calm. The commercial hubs of Madina, Pathergatti, Charminar and Laad Bazaar were closed on the orders of the police. Bangle sellers said at Laad Bazaar rued loss of business during this ongoing marriage season. Charminar remained closed and buses were off key routes resulting in a complete halt in tourism. N V Rao, regional manager, APSRTC said, “The Chandrayangutta-Afzalgunj route via Shah Ali Banda and Engine Bowli route is not operational. Also, buses will not play on the IAS Sadan-Nalgonda crossroads route.”
Activists continued to condemn the recent spate of violence in the city and said that the authorities should be friends of the public. They noted that imposing a curfew in areas of the city would only make matters worse and would create hurdles for normalcy to return. They demanded that further communalisation of society should be stopped.
There was heavy bandobast across the city with RAF being deployed in sensitive pockets of the Old City. A contingent of 250 trainee policemen was deputed to assist the city police. Manish Kumar Sinha, DCP, South Zone said, “In an attempt to stop rumour-mongering, we have instructed businessmen to close their establishments. We are taking all measures to keep violence at bay. Also, trainee policemen have been called to help the city police.”