Seemandhra govt staff serve strike notice

Over 350,000 govt employees in addition to the Seemandhra staff working in Hyderabad city will join the strike from Aug 13

The government staff associations representing the employees belonging to Coastal Andhra and  Rayalaseema regions served a strike notice on Tuesday in support of their demand to keep the state united.

The leaders of these associations met state chief secretary AK Mohanty at the secretariat to submit a letter to this effect. In their letter, the associations urged the state government to request the Centre not to divide AP.

Over 350,000 government employees and those working in government schools, transport and electricity services across the 13 districts of Seemandhra in addition to the Seemandhra staff  working in Hyderabad city will join the strike from August 13, according to the associations.

They are also demanding the resignation of MPs and ministers from the Seemandhra region for mounting pressure on the Centre to roll back its decision on Telangana.

The government did not respond to the strike notice. The Telangana staff associations has questioned the government silence in this regard while reminding that it had issued special orders restricting the demonstrations in the secretariat when they launched a month-long strike in support of Telangana statehood in June last year.

It may be recalled that the government employees from the Telangana region went on a strike for almost 35 days paralysing the administrative work in the districts. However, the impact in the capital was partial as the government staff belonging to Seemandhra regions stood their ground.

Moreover, revenue collections and payment of salaries and bills have been fully made online. Therefore, the strike had little impact on the government monetary transactions in the past.

According to official statistics, in 2012-13 the seven revenue earning departments, including the commercial taxes and excise (liquor sales), in the 13 Seemandhra districts contributed Rs 21,538 crore to the state exchequer as compared with Rs 47,607 crore from Telangana, including Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, street rallies led by political parties and students continued in many of the urban centres across Seemandhra today. Student organisations from various universities have decided to intensify their struggle from Wednesday targeting elected representatives and ministers from the region.

Bandh by private schools in Vizag
All the private schools in Visakhapatnam observed bandh today to protest against the state bifurcation. School children organised rallies, human chains at several important junctions in the city. Fair price shop dealers and gold merchants voluntarily joined today's protest rallies.

Andhra University student Joint Action Committee (JAC) has decided to organise a massive public meeting on August 12 and a march at beach road on August 18.