Talks between AP government, electricity employees deadlocked

Talks between Electricity Employees' Joint Action Committee (JAC) and the Andhra Pradesh government to bring the ongoing indefinite strike to an end proved inconclusive today, even as AP Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is scheduled to hold talks with JAC leaders again at 7 pm today, in a bid to end the impasse.

"There is no clarity on different issues. We will come for talks again in the evening," JAC chairman Saibabu told reporters, emerging out of the Chief Minister's camp office.

More than 30,000 employees of the AP Power Generation Corporation, AP Power Transmission Corporation, AP Southern Power Distribution Company and AP Eastern Power Distribution Company launched an indefinite strike yesterday demanding that the Centre immediately withdraw the move to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh to create a separate Telangana state.

The strike has resulted in power blackout in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema districts besides affecting power supply to Hyderabad city. Train services were the worst hit because of power outage, forcing the East Coast Railway to either cancel or reschedule important trains.

However, the South Central Railway announced that it had not cancelled any trains, though many of them ran behind schedule.

With the strike threatening to affect the Southern Power Grid, which could lead to a total blackout all across southern states, the AP government invited the Electricity Employees' JAC leaders for talks to end the strike.

The cabinet sub-committee on employees' issues, comprising AP finance minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy and others, held talks with the JAC, with Chief Secretary P K Mohanty and AP Energy Department officials also taking part.

The JAC sought a firm assurance that Andhra Pradesh would be kept "united" and the state government remained helpless.