Telangana Strike Enters 19th Day

Normal life remains paralysed in the Telangana region for the 19th consecutive day, on Saturday, due to the Sakala Janula Samme demanding statehood for the Telangana region.

Likewise, the strike by the RTC employees of Telangana entered its 13th day, and the medical strike entered its 10th day on Saturday.

The strike has crippled the entire administration, as employees of the Secretariat, SCCL, RTC, Electricity Board, GHMC, Water Board, and teachers' unions, and employees in other services have joined the Samme.

Almost 10,000 buses remained off the road in the Telangana region on Saturday. Of nearly 3,500 city buses, less than 400 buses plied on the roads, and most of them were used to transport employees hailing from Seemandhra regions, to the state Secretariat, under tight security.

The RTC even has set up a special counter at the MG bus station to refund money to passengers who had reserved tickets to travel for Dussehra and Deepavali.

While the non-striking employees received their full salaries on Saturday, the striking employees held protests in the Secretariat against the implementation of the "No Work No Pay" rule.

Meanwhile, the Ration Dealers Association has announced that they will join the general strike soon. Sources indicated that the ration dealers might join the strike from Monday. This might cause hardships to everyone, in view of the festival season.

The electricity department is preparing to impose more power cuts across the state. While Hyderabad will have daily power cuts for 4 hours, district headquarters and towns will have 6 hours of power cuts every day.

Mandal headquarters will have power cuts for 7 hours a day, villages will face 12 hours of cuts, and the agricultural sector will continue to get 6 hours of supply instead of 7. However, industries will not have power for 2 days in a week. (INN)