Protests have erupted in southeast India and two ministers have resigned a day after the government bowed to a longstanding and often violent campaign for a new state called Telangana.
Demonstrators blocked roads and took to the streets in coastal regions of the state of Andhra Pradesh on Friday after the decision by the cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to split the region into two.
A new state called Telangana, which will be India's 29th as long as it gets parliamentary approval, will be created out of an impoverished, drought-prone area that supporters say has been neglected by successive state governments.
Two federal ministers resigned over the decision to create a new state in southern India.
Tourism Minister K. Chiranjeevi faxed his resignation to the Prime Minister's Office late on Thursday, broadcaster NDTV reported.
Human Resource Development Minister MM Pallam Raju also tendered his resignation, calling the decision "hasty", the report said. Four more ministers had offered to resign.
The main city of the region, IT hub Hyderabad, will serve as joint capital for both areas for at least the next 10 years, the government said.
Businesses and schools closed across the state's southern and coastal regions, where people are opposed to the split, to mark the start of a two-day strike.
In Ananthapuram district, 400 kilometres from Hyderabad, protesters shouted slogans and tore down posters of the ruling Congress Party amid fears of more violence, which has regularly flared in recent years over the issue.
Demonstrators tried to block highways, closed shops and attacked public transport. Hundreds of police and paramilitary personnel were deployed but no casualties were reported.
India last redrew its internal boundaries in 2000, with the creation of three new states in economically deprived areas in the northern half of the country.
Critics say Thursday's step could open a "Pandora's box" of demands for statehood by other regional groups in ethnically diverse India, which also has a host of separatist movements.
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