Administration and functioning of the government is set to be severely affected in Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema and the State capital from Tuesday as 4.5 lakh employees, including RTC, municipal, and electricity, will go on indefinite strike from Monday midnight with the demand to keep the State united.
Even as the Group of Ministers reconstituted to address employee’s grievances tried to prevail on the representatives of APNGOs, Gazetted Officers associations and other associations, including revenue, treasury, panchayat raj, commercial taxes, vehicle drivers, to withdraw their strike notice, the employees turned it down. However, those working in essential and emergency services would be exempted from the strike.
Ashok Babu, President, APNGOs Association said several associations in a meeting held at Vijayawada on August 4 resolved to go on indefinite strike from August 12 if the MPs and Ministers from Seemandhra did not resign to bring pressure on the UPA Coordination Committee and the Congress Working Committee to reconsider its decision on State bifurcation. The GoM headed by Deputy Chief Minister C. Damodar Rajanarasimha and comprising Ministers Anam Ramanarayan Reddy, N. Raghuveera Reddy, Pithani Satyanarayana, Uttam Kumar Reddy, held discussions for over two hours with the employees’ associations even as the mood outside was emotionally surcharged.