State sees end to pen-down strike soon

Hinting at finding an amicable solution to end the pen-down strike launched by employees, teachers and other staff of the state government in a day or two, state finance minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy said the group of ministers specifically constituted to study the issue would be holding deliberations besides discussing the issue in the Cabinet on Saturday.

“Earlier in the day the chief minister had spoken with me from Delhi on this issue. As the convener of the group of ministers, I am hopeful that it would be sorted out shortly,” the minister told the media. The pen-down strike call given by the joint action committee of the government employees, teachers and other staff of government entities entered the third day today threatening to complicate matters for the statewide mass contact programme to be launched by the chief minister, ministers and elected representatives of the ruling party soon.

Though the state government has been implementing the new scales according to the pay revision committee recommendations, it failed to convince the employee associations on the framework for implementing other related recommendations, including the introduction of a health insurance policy, leading to the present imbroglio.

Meanwhile, the minister, who returned from Delhi after participating in the pre-Budget consultations held by the Centre, said the government was optimistic that the long-pending demand for a share in royalty on production of natural gas from the K-G Basin would be positively looked into by the Centre. “More so, the Petroleum Ministry is now with S Jaipal Reddy, who helped the state in getting enormous funds when he was the urban development minister,” he said.

Reddy said notwithstanding the Centre’s response to their request for adoption of state government-sponsored welfare development programmes, they will somehow implement all the ongoing welfare schemes even though the gap in revenue and expenditure has been growing in recent times.