The Karnataka Essential Services Maintenance Bill, which was passed in the Legislative Assembly in 2013, has now got the President’s assent. The government will issue a notification on this soon, said Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra on Tuesday.
The Bill, popularly known as ESMA, is aimed at putting an end to employees working in service sectors such as water, power, health and transport, going on strike and causing inconvenience to people. The legislation allows for the police to arrest a striking employee without warrant.
The definition under ESMA for essential services include any service connected with the “production, generation, storage, transmission, supply or distribution of water or electricity, and any transportation service for the carriage of passengers or goods by motor vehicles”.
DA case
The Minister said the State government was likely to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s acquittal in the disproportionate assets case by next week.
The Minister told presspersons at the KPCC office here that the government had appointed the former Advocate-General B.V. Acharya as the special counsel.
