Telangana strike ends, employees to resume work

Mtoday news / PTI

Hyderabad, Oct 25: Pro-Telangana government employees are set to return to work on Tuesday. Reports say they temporarily called off their 42-day long strike for separate statehood late on Monday after the government gave in to nine of their demands.

After a lot of discussions between the two sides, the government finally caved in and accepted the nine demands laid down by the protestors. The employees have agreed to resume work but reports claim that the strike has only been temporarily called off.

The employees, on strike since September 13 as part of the ’Sakala Janula Samme’ (strike by all sections) in support of a host of demands including a timeline for statehood to the region, called it off after several rounds of discussions with Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha and senior officials at the state secretariat.

 

 

D Nagender, Minister for Labour and Employment said the state government has agreed to implement most of the employees’ demands and some of the issues, which are not under the state government’s purview, will be referred to the central government.

"We sincerely thank the employees for calling off their strike. The Chief Minister has agreed to most of their demands. The employees have understood the situation and agreed to join duties from tomorrow," Nagender told reporters after the talks were successfully concluded on Monday evening.

Telangana Political Joint Action Committee Chairman Kodandaram said the employees have called of their strike "temporarily" and thanked them for their support to the Telangana cause.

Minister of Finance A Ramanarayana Reddy said the salary for the strike period will be given to the employees as special advance keeping in the view the festive season.

The employees had been participating in the strike as per the decision by the Telangana Political Joint Action Committee (JAC) that comprises TRS, BJP and various others people’s organizations.

Several sections of employees like Teachers, Andhra Pradesh State Road Corporations (APSRTC) and state-run Singareni Collieries had already withdrawn from the strike earlier.

The government has conceded to nine demands put forward by the employees including lifting of all cases filed against the employees during strike period will be lifted and the strike period will be considered as special leave.

"The government will approach the Andhra Pradesh High Court to allow it to relax government order No 177 which says no work no pay. The advocate general will study the matter and file a petition in the High Court," Nagender said.

The employees were also against use of Essential Services Maintenance Act in future.

Other demands included implementation of GO 610 in all the departments and reinstatement of the outsourcing employees who were not involved in any cases during the strike period.

Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is in charge of Congress affairs in Andhra Pradesh had yesterday appealed to the pro-Telangana employees to call-off the strike in view of Deepavali and Bakrid festivals and the inconvenience caused to people.

The government did not enforce Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) though it had threatened to invoke the law during the 42-day strike period.