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Summary
Railway authorities were forced to cancel train services along many routes in India's southern Andhra Pradesh as a precautionary measure after rival groups supporting and opposing a separate southern state resorted to blocking the tracks to voice their protest on Tuesday.The protests took place at a time when India's federal Home (interior) Minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram was presiding over a multi-party meeting in New Delhi to resolve the controversial issue of separate state of Telangana, carved out of Andhra Pradesh. In the coastal city of Visakhapatanam, dozens of trains were stopped by anti-Telangana agitators.Earlier on Monday in New Delhi K Chandrasekhara Rao, chief of the regional Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) party, spearheading the movement for a separate state had met leaders of the Communist Party India (CPI) to garner their support.The agitation for Telangana has resulted in series of violent incidents in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad and also a couple of other places in Andhra Pradesh. Telangana region is spread over 10 northern districts of Andhra Pradesh.Several regions of India are demanding autonomy for better governance like Vidarbha, Kamtapur and Gorkhaland.
