Employees in Telangana will undertake demonstrations during the lunch hour in their offices each day, besides adopting a 'work to rule' policy, from Monday, as a buildup to the general strike called from 17 August across the region.
The announcement about lunch hour demonstrations comes even as the state government has made known its decision to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against its employees who intend to join the proposed strike from August 17.
In addition, the region will see the deployment of security forces in and around government offices, universities, hospitals and other institutions.
Besides invoking ESMA, the government has decided to impose the 'no work no pay' rule.
The Telangana Employees' Joint Action Committee (JAC) and other unions have already warned the state government of serious consequences if it indeed uses the ESMA against the employees. The employees' leaders have stated that they would not buckle down, at
their meeting with the Group of Ministers on August 5.
The TRS, the Communist Party of India, the BJP, Telangana Students' JAC and other groups, and Telangana leaders from the Congress and the TDP have all declared their support to the strike.
Taking note of the fact that the strike may paralyse the administration, the government has announced that it has invoked ESMA in the departments of Health, Municipal Administration, State Road Transport Corporation, Electricity, Civil Supplies, Rural Water Supply and Panchayat Raj.
Under ESMA, a person found obstructing or disturbing the delivery of services can be imprisoned for 6 months.
Meanwhile the government is making all efforts to avoid a situation like the one experienced in February-March this year, when the 16-day non-cooperation agitation, in which nearly 3,00,000 employees took part, had severely hit the administration.
On the other hand, the employees' unions are going all out to convince the employees and the public in general, that the strike is an important tool to make the government fulfill the demand of a separate Telangana state. (INN)