With the leaders of striking employees refusing to come to the negotiation table if the government side is represented by bureaucrats, the government on Friday once again decided to engage the group of ministers (GoM) to lead the talks.
Accordingly, the ministers have invited the leaders of employees joint action committee (JAC) for talks tomorrow.
It may be recalled that in their first meeting with the GoM, the employee leaders demanded lifting of the provisions of Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) and GO 177 that mandates imposition of no-work, no-pay rule among other disciplinary action besides asking the government to withdraw all police cases filed against them as a precondition to discuss the possibility of ending the ongoing general strike.
The government initially tried to counter this move by stating that these demands would be considered only if they first call off the strike. However, it changed its stand later by first designating the chief secretary to lead the talks and again deputing the GoM renewing the invitation for talks, now scheduled for tomorrow.
The 32-day-old strike, which had crippled the government machinery and public services across the region, would get further amplified by the three-day rail roko programme starting tomorrow under the aegis of the Telangana political joint action committee, which has been spearheading the agitation in support of the separate statehood demand.
The Indian Railways has already announced cancellation of as many as 124 trains, apart from partial cancellation of 38, diversion of 68, rescheduling of 29 and regulation of eight trains in the state. This also comes as another volte face for the state government, which had earlier declared that the trains would be operated with full police protection and any attempt to disrupt them would be seriously dealt with.
Meanwhile, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Botsa Satyanarayana today appealed to the party MPs, who announced that they would also join the rail roko agitation, not to take part in it.