Telangana employees' strike postponed to Sept 6

The indefinite strike of the Telangana employees, officers, teachers and workers in support of a separate state has been postponed. The Telangana Joint Action Committee on Thursday decided to put it off by about four weeks in view of the holy months of Ramazan and Shravan.

However, a mass agitation will be launched on August 17, as per the schedule to build momentum across the region, said Professor Kodanda Ram, convenor of the Telangana Joint Action Committee. The government employees will go on an indefinite strike from September 6, he said.

TJAC will organise a massive demonstration in Hyderabad on August 17 at Indira Park to mark the launch of the new phase of the agitation. This will be followed by a rally -- Praja Garjana -- on September 4 or 5 at Karimnagar, which will be attended by lakhs of people.

This crucial decision was taken by the TJAC at a meet on Thursday, which was attended by the representatives of the Telagnana Rashtra Samithi, the Bharatiya Janata Party and many other organisations.

Ram said the decision to postpone the strike was taken keeping in mind that it would create discomfort for representatives of the Hindu and Muslims community observing a fast.  "We are fighting for the sake of the people and we want to do it without causing any problems to the people," he said.

He also stressed that the decision to postpone the indefinite strike by the government employees was also part of over all strategy. TRS leader E Rajindar said that time was needed to do some more homework and prepare the ground before government employees and teachers of the region go on an indefinite strike. "We will organise a campaign from cities to the villages to create an atmosphere to make the strike a complete success," he added.

Ram said that there was a misconception that the strike will see the participation of only government employees, teachers and the workers. "It will be a mass strike in which everybody will participate," he said.

Ram said that the change of strategy was called for because pressure had started mounting on employees not only from the government but also from the Congress. He said that the government was threatening employees with dire consequences if they go on strike and enforced the Essential Services Maintenance Act.

"Though employees were still ready to go on strike and face any action by the government, it was unfair to expose them to such pressures at this juncture," he said.

Senior BJP leader Ch Vidyasagar Rao said that the strike will be the last step in the struggle for Telangana state and after that there will be no state legislative assembly. "There will be only assembly of the masses," he said, sending out a warning to the legislators of Telangana who have still not resigned.

Earlier in the day, TJAC employees, officers, teachers and the workers rejected the Andhra Pradesh government's invitation for talks on issues other than Telangana. JAC chairman Swamy Goud said that the government's invite was an insult and they did not have any intention of talking to the government. He said after enforcing the draconian ESMA Act, there was nothing to talk.

Though Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy's government has heaved a sigh of relief over the postponement of indefinite strike by the employees, its problems were not over fully. Telangana supporters specially the students were gearing up for a confrontation with the government on the issue of written examinations for the recruitment of police sub inspectors.

Telagnana supporters have threatened to disrupt the examinations unless the President issues an order repealing the Clause 14 F of the Presidential order of 1975. Telangana protagonists are demanding that the police sub inspectors jobs in Hyderabad should be reserved only for the local people while Clause 14F has kept it open for the people from all over the state.

The central government has decided to repeal the clause but an official announcement was yet to be made.

Bandh in Andhra, Rayalseema

Meanwhile, a bandh was observed in Andhra and Rayalseema regions in protest against the central government's decision to reserve the police jobs in Hyderabad for the local people.

Schools, colleges, business establishments and shops remain closed as the students took out rallies and held demonstrations in Nellore, Prakasham, Guntur, Vijaywada and other places. They want the Centre to withdraw its decision of scrapping the Clause 14 F, which would make Hyderabad a free zone.