Telangana employees on strike from August 17

HYDERABAD: Government employees in Telangana will launch an indefinite general strike on August 17 demanding formation of a separate Telangana state.Employees of different departments have already served notices in this regard and will organise protests from August 1 to 11. But they threatened to launch the strike earlier than scheduled in case the government adopts pressure tactics like invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA).From August 1 to 3, the employees will hold round table conferences in Hyderabad and atall the district headquarters on the Telangana movement. A bus tour, Telangana Udyama Yatra, will be taken up from August 2 to 6 where 10 groups will tour the 10 districts of Telangana region to generate public support for the movement.Simultaneously, employees along with teachers, workers, doctors and other groups will organise relay hunger strike at Indira Park in Hyderabad and also all district and mandal headquarters from August 3 to 5.Further, all wings of the government departments in the region will observe `work down’ and organise lunchhour demonstrations from August 8 to 11.About 130 organisations representing employees, doctors, teachers, workers, lecturers and officers from different government departments held a meeting here on Tuesday under the aegis of Telangana Joint Action Committee of Employees, Teachers and Workers to chalk out their action plan for the strike. Telangana employees working in various public sector undertakings and central government departments will also organise protests in support of the general strike called by the TJAC.Speaking to mediapersons, TJAC (employees) chairman K Swamy Goud declared that the employees were not frightened by the government’s threats to invoke ESMA, slap criminal cases and take other actions against employees if they struck work. “No threat will deter us from launching the strike for realising our demands.However, we are open to talks with the government.In case the government invites us to talks, we will accept the invitation to raise our demands and concerns which the state government fai led t o address after our previous discussions for the benefit of people, particularly employees of Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh,” said Swamy Goud.