Visakhapatnam: A bandh was observed and protests were witnessed all over the agency area here on Friday, decrying the government proposal to include Boya, Valmiki and Bentu Oriya communities in the ST list.
Leaders of various tribal associations who formed a joint action committee on the issue, assembled on the highways from morning.
With the call for bandh given in advance, armed CRPF personnel as well as state police were present in large numbers from Thursday and took measures to prevent any untoward incident and regulated traffic.
The protesters fear that the government decision would affect their lives and demanded the people’s representatives from ST to resign and bring pressure on the government to revoke the decision.
They also wanted other political parties to clarify their stand on the issue.