Thaindian News

Hyderabad, Feb 10 (IANS) Government employees from Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh Friday threatened to launch a protest from Feb 21, culminating in a strike, if the government failed to fulfil the promises made to them at the end of a 42-day-long strike last year.

A delegation of Telangana employees’ Joint Action Committee (JAC) called on Chief Secretary Pankaj Dwivedi, urging the government to honour its commitments.

JAC leader Swami Goud told reporters that the government has not fulfilled any of the promises made in October last year. “There is no alternative left for us than to launch another agitation,” he said.

He said the JAC has chalked out an action plan to pressurise the government to fulfil the assurances. The protest programme would be taken in phases with the employees staging lunch-hour demonstrations from Feb 21. In the second phase, the employees will observe “work to rule” from March 5, or not working beyond office hours.

The JAC plans to call for “Chalo Hyderabad” on March 20. “If the government still fails to fulfil the promises, we will go on indefinite strike,” Goud said.

The government employees had participated in 42-day “Sakala Janula Samme” or people’s strike demanding separate statehood to Telangana. They called off the strike on Oct 24 after the government gave them certain assurances.

The government had agreed to adjust the 42-day strike period against eligible leave of the employee. The JAC leaders recalled that the government had also promised to lift all cases foisted against them and stop harassment.

The action plan by employees JAC is in line with the decision of Telangana JAC to resume protest for separate state in March.

Telangana JAC comprises Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and other political and non-political groups fighting for separate state.