Toughening its stance ahead of the proposed strike by state government employees belonging to the Telangana region from August 17 in support of a separate state demand, the Kiran Kumar Reddy regime has decided to bring 46 more services under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma). The talks between the state and the employees last week had collapsed after the former refused to honour some of the pre-conditions set by the latter, including not involving the Esma in the event of a strike.

According to sources, chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy on Sunday gave the green signal to the cabinet sub-committee to include more services under Esma. The cabinet panel is scheduled to meet on Monday after which the decision is likely to be announced, they said.

The services which are being brought under the Esma are: AP transport services, AP rural water supply service, AP BC welfare service, AP civil supplies service, AP social welfare service, AP registration service, AP commercial tax service, AP revenue service, AP judicial and ministerial services, AP panchayat raj service, AP media and health service, AP state and subordinate services, AP last grade service, AP secretariat services, AP ministerial and allied services, AP work-charged services and AP subordinate services.

The state has already brought the AP dairy development corporation, Singareni Collieries, Transco, APGenco, CPDCL, EPDCL, NPDCL, SPDCL, 104 municipalities across the state, GHMC, Hyderabad water works and sewerage board, the treasuries, pay offices, pay and accounts offices, APSRTC and Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) under Esma.

ESMA was enacted in 1971 and first invoked in 1983 when NTR was the chief minister. Then, only 33 services were brought under the purview of Esma on July 5, 1983. It was invoked for the second time on November 4, 1986 against the striking state government employees. If those in the services brought under the Esma go on strike, the government will have the authority to cut their job and salary and such a decision in turn cannot be challenged in court. According to sources, another round of talks is possible between the state and the employee associations ahead of the proposed strike from August 17.