HYDERABAD: The stage is set for bringing most of the government departments including education, health, civil supplies, transport, municipal, rural water supply, revenue, ministerial and allied services under the Essential Services and Maintenance Act (ESMA) in view of the general strike to be launched by the Telangana Joint Action Committee of Employees, Teachers and Workers.On Monday, the government declared civil supplies department and the Andhra Pradesh Civil Supplies Corporation as essential services. Orders on other departments will be issued in a day or two after obtaining a formal approval from the chief minister on Tuesday.According to sources, proposals have already been prepared for consideration of the cabinet sub-committee on employees issues which is meeting on Tuesday. Though the sub-committee was scheduled to meet on Monday to take a decision and submit the proposals to the chief minister for his approval, the meeting was cancelled due to absence of deputy chief minister Damodara Rajanarasimha who went on a visit to Tamil Nadu. The sub-committee will discuss future action plan before submitting proposals for formal approval.Labour minister D Nagender said the sub-committee was committed to resolving the demands put forward by employees from Telangana. “However, we cannot take decisions on issues which are not under our purview. A final decision on the future action will be taken tomorrow at the cabinet sub-committee meeting,” he said.It is learnt that chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has agreed, in principle, to the proposals prepared by the officials concerned. Apart from invoking ESMA, the government has decided to initiate stringent measures against employees who abstain from work. Further, the police have been instructed to provide protection to employees who attend their duties. The district administrations have been asked to instruct their subordinates to attend to work apart from pressurising teachers with the help of village elders and parents to conduct classes in their schools.Chief secretary SV Prasad is reviewing the situation daily to ensure that people are not put to inconvenience due to the unavailability of essential commodities to be caused by the general strike. “All things are being put in place so that the government can easily deal with the general strike and invoke the ESMA if required,” said a senior official in the Chief Minister’s Office. He said ESMA would be invoked in the last minute as the government was still hopeful that employees would see reason and cooperate with it.Meanwhile, TJAC employees who launched their first phase of protests on Monday, staged lunch-hour demonstrations across the region. Their major demands include creation of a separate Telangana state, removal of Clause 14 (f) of the Presidential Order and withdrawal of forces from government offices. At many government offices and schools, employees and teachers observed ‘work-to-rule’ (working only during office hours) to register their protest. The demonstrations will be staged till August 11. The employees warned that they would launch the general strike earlier than the scheduled date of August 17 in case the government took provocative measures like bringing more departments under ESMA.
Comments
0 comment