T Employees Strike Notice Puts Cabinet in Dilemma
posted on Jul 29, 2011 @ 4:36PM
A group of ministers from the 'scratch' cabinet (as T-region ministers submitted resignations and many of the remaining abstained) met on Thursday to discuss the state government's response to the employees strike notice from August have concluded that the demands raised by the unions do not fall under the purview of the state. Deputy chief minister Damodar Raja Narasimha chaired the meeting in which finance minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy and revenue minister N Raghuveera Reddy also participated.
Government employees working in the Telangana region have served strike notices to the government saying that they would go on strike from August 17 if the Centre fails to announce formation of separate Telangana State before August 1. Officials from general administration, finance, revenue, education and services have informed the Cabinet sub-committee that demands raised by the employees are in the purview of the central government and state can do nothing about this.
The group of ministers discussed the modalities to be followed in case of inviting employee unions for talks. Finally, it was decided to leave the issue to chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to decide on talks with unions. The state government has received two notices, one from Secretariat employees four months back and another recently by T-employees' joint action committee. Since most of the service matters were resolved, the ministers were left with no clue on what to discuss with the unions if at all talks are initiated.