Effort to break govt employees' strike in support of Telangana

Certain key functionaries in the state government are said to be employing "divide and rule" tactics to make at least a major section of the employees call off the strike that has started showing impact on the administration in the ten Telangana districts since September 13.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy held "secret" parleys with Telangana Employees Joint Action Committee president Swami Goud in his camp office around late on Friday night and tried to prevail upon him to give up the agitation, highly placed sources in the Chief Minister's Office said today.

"Goud has agreed to attend a formal meeting with the Chief Minister probably on Monday to discuss all issues concerning the employees," the sources added.

A Group of Ministers on employees' issues is also said to be in the loop on the issue and acting as the channel between Goud and the Chief Minister, they said.
CMO sources believe that at least one section of the employees is likely to withdraw from the indefinite strike in the next three-four days based on the outcome of the formal talks with government.

The government employees in the Telangana region are staying away from work since September 13 as part of 'Sakala Janula Samme' (strike by all sections of people), called to
demand statehood.

On its part, the Employees' JAC is looking for a pretext to end the strike and is tacitly asking the political leadership to take over the mantle and "not fire from our shoulders."

"As it has been engaging the JAC leadership in talks, the government is not inclined to enforce the Essential Services Maintenance Act immediately on the striking employees though orders were issued bringing many key government departments like revenue, medical and health, social welfare, and transport under ESMA's purview," a district collector said.

"We have not got any instruction so far from the government on enforcing ESMA though the Chief Secretary wrote a letter two days ago asking us to implement the no-work, no-pay rule," he said.

Pointing out that JAC leaders in his district were from departments falling under ESMA, he asked, "If I enforce ESMA and arrest them for striking work, with whom can I negotiate and resolve the issue?"

With the situation being the same in many other districts, the General Administration Department is said to have "informally" asked the Collectors to "just keep a watch."