Hyderabad to host UN biodiversity summit amidst Telangana bandh

Hyderabad: Hyderabad will be hosting India's first United Nations Conference on Biodiversity on Monday. Tight security arrangements are in place for the summit as it comes a day after the Telangana march that took a violent turn on Sunday with protesters going on a rampage, destroying media vans and public transport vehicles.

Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anurag Sharma assured that there will be no compromise on the security to the 19-day summit, even as the organisers of the march, the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), called for a bandh in ten districts on Monday.

On Sunday, the Telangana march brought Hyderabad to a standstill as lakhs of supporters, demanding a separate state of Telangana, participated in it. Despite a promise by the TJAC that the march will be peaceful, protesters tried to break through barricades and enter prohibited areas forcing the police to resort to lathicharge and lob tear gas shells.

At Osmania University, students took out a motorcycle rally despite having no permission from the police. Minor incidents of stone-pelting and clashes between students and police were reported. As the day wore on, incidents of violence increased, with the demonstrators damaging 25 vehicles, that included police and media vans.

Sudden rainfall, however, forced the organisers to cancel the rally scheduled for Monday. Road blockades, however, may be expected on Monday as part of the bandh. A few private schools are expected to be shut. While public transport buses were operating normally on Monday morning, inter-state services were affected. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the TJAC plans to launch a hunger strike.

UN Conference on Biodiversity

The United Nations Conference on Biodiversity will be inaugurated by Enviornment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan and will be attended by over 8,000 delegates from more than 150 countries. The meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP MOP 6) is scheduled first. It will discuss and adopt further decisions to ensure the safe transfer, handling and use of living modified organisms (LMOs) resulting from modern biotechnology.

COP MOP 6, a five-day meet will conclude on October 5. This will be followed by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 11) between October 8 and 19 and is expected to see the participation of heads of countries and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

(With additional information from PTI)