Strike to continue as talks to revoke Telangana fail: Andhra state employees

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh state employees, including those in the crucial power sector, today said their strike over creation of Telangana would continue as talks with the government on the issue had failed. [caption id=“attachment_1163089” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Telangana protests. PTI image[/caption] The AP Non-Gazetted Officers (APNGO) Association and the Electricity Employees Joint Action Committee, which held talks with a Cabinet Sub-Committee and later with the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, refused to call off the indefinite strike until they got a clear assurance from the Centre on revoking the move to bifurcate the state. The employees, from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, adopted a rigid stance on the strike as they are said to be peeved over conflicting claims made by the Congress’s central leaders on the state bifurcation issue. This was reflected in the talks held with state government yesterday and today, and the end result was a failure with the employees announcing that the strike will continue. The Chief Minister went to the extent of assuring the employees that he “would not let the state be divided” as long as he remained in his post but that seemingly did not cut any ice as both organisations announced that the talks had “failed”. The only ray of hope that the striking employees offered was that they would discuss the government’s offer within their associations in the next two to three days and get back to the Cabinet Sub-Committee. While the 59-day-old strike by the APNGO Association has not had much impact, the protest by electricity employees for the past three days has pushed all 13 districts in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema into darkness and left the state capital Hyderabad starving for power. Sources said that the employees took a rigid stance because of conflicting claims made by Congress leaders in New Delhi over the bifurcation. PTI