Telangana employees strike deferred

HYDERABAD: The indefinite strike by the Telangana government employees, teachers and workers has been deferred. It will not begin on August 17 as had been declared earlier.TJAC chairman Prof M Kodandaram made an announcement to this effect after the TJAC’s steering committee meeting here on Thursday.Kodandaram did not say when the strike would begin. “The change has been made to make the movement more effective,” Kodandaram said.“The strike notice served by the employees on the government will be valid. In fact the employees are raring to go on strike from August 17. But we have discussed the strategy for taking the movement forward and decided that the potent weapon - employees’ strike - should come later and not in the beginning,” he said.Kodandaram said that the two-phase agitation has now been made into a three-phase agitation. The first phase of agitation will end on August 16. August 17 will mark the beginning of the second phase of agitation, It would be marked by a maha dharna in Hyderabad. Till Sept 4, sensitisation of people on the need for a united fight for Telangana would be taken up from district to village level,” he said.The third phase of agitation, in the words of TRS leader Etela Rajender will be “much more severe and it would be like Telangana shutdown.” Neither Kodandaram nor Rajender said if the employees strike would begin in the third phase or much later. Kodandaram sought to define sakalajanula samme as one that would encompass everyone in every walk of life and it will be on from August 17. “An impression was gaining ground that sakalajanula samme was only government employees’ strike. Employees, though they are potent force, would alone not constitute sakala janulu and this one reason why we have separated employees’ strike from sakalajanula samme, he said.In Sakalajanula Samme all political parties, doctors, advocates, students, industrialists and general public would participate.To mark the end of the second phase of agitation, a massive public meeting would be held at Karimnagar on Sept 5. From next day, the third phase of agitation will begin, Rajender said.