T-tangle: Govt - Employees Showdown Begins

With massive 'Jana Garjana' meeting held at Karimnagar on 12 September, the bugle has been blown for a major showdown between the state government and 2.4 lakh employees of Telangana with the latter calling for an indefinite general strike 'Sakala Janula Samme' beginning on 13 September (today). As an indication of how the tone and tenor of the agitation is going to be, the TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao warned that the Telangana region would turn into a fireball if the government invoked the Essential Services Maintanance Act (Esma) against even a single employee from the region.


Addressing the massive public meeting 'Jana Garjana' in Karimnagar yesterday, KCR said the employees general strike would be a trendsetter in the history of the state as no bus would run, no train would move, no educational institution would open and no production would take place in the Singareni mines. The TRS chief warned that the entire administration would be brought to a screeching halt as they would replicate the Manipur bandh to bring the government to its knees. Pooh-poohing the government’s pressure tactics to apply 'no work no pay' rule to dissuade the employees from embarking on the strike, he thundered: "We would behead ourselves but not give up the Telangana movement. There is no compromise on separate Telangana state."

Under the aegis of the Telangana Employees Joint Action Committee (TJAC), an umbrella of various state government associations, the T employees have given the call for the "Sakala Janula Samme (mass strike)". "To put it simply, the T employees will not report to work from Tuesday," said T Swamy Goud, president of the Telangana Employees JAC. Although the non-Telangana state government employees of the total strength of 6.38 lakh employees in the state will be working, some citizen services like registration of properties, birth and death related issues handled by GHMC and various municipalities, registration of vehicles are likely to be affected. The strike is expected to be partial in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts and total in the remaining Telangana districts.