The joint action of committee (JAC) of Telangana employees will hold a 'Maha Dharna' in the state capital on Tuesday as a part of their agitation for a separate statehood to the region even though chief minister, N Kiran Kumar Reddy, asked them to resume duty.
The chief minister, who reviewed the situation arising out of the four-week-old strike, asked the employees to resume duty besides instructing electricity department officials to ensure that power is supplied agricultural pumpsets so as to save standing crops.
Meanwhile, signs of dissent over the prolonged closure of educational institutions as a part of the strike in Telangana surfaced on Monday with parents and students of a private college in the city staging a dharna demanding reopening of the institution.
The activists of the Telangana JAC, however, were against reopening of educational institutions. They entered into a heated argument with the parents and pelted stones on the college building. The police had to intervene to disperse the protestors.
Parents of students, particularly those whose children are in class 10 to 12, are worried over the future of their children as they have already lost classes for nearly a month due to the strike.
On the other hand, the National Mazdoor Union (NMU) of the state road transport corporation appeared to be heading for a split with the union leader, Mahmood, announcing postponement of the on-going strike and a section of its members hailing from Telangana expressing their resolve to continue the agitation.
NMU Telangana Forum president, Thomas Reddy, and convenor, Aswathama Reddy, said the strike would continue throughout the Telangana region.