Secretariat employees call off agitation
The Secretariat employees from Seemandhra called off their 39-day old strike on Friday following talks with chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy. They will attend duties from Saturday.
‘’In view of the cyclone, we have decided to call off our strike temporarily. We are ready to go on flash strike at any time in future, if necessary,” Secretariat Seemandhra Employees Forum president U Murali Krishna said.
He said that Secretariat employees did not consult APNGOs president P Ashok Babu to call off the strike. “Secretariat employees have a separate identity. The chief minister wanted us to end the strike as the sanction of pensions and other works have been affected in the last 39 days,” Murali Krishna explained. The Secretariat staff wanted the chief minister to consider the strike period as a special casual leave and pay the salary for the period.
Murali Krishna said though they called off their strike, they would continue their fight for United AP and launch protest programmes.
“We are withdrawing from the strike temporarily based on the assurance given by chief minister that they will defeat the resolution (for division) of the state in the Assembly,” Murali Krishna said. Excise Staff TO Strike Work: Meanwhile, the excise and prohibition employees of Seemandhra formed a JAC recently and served a strike notice on the chief secretary PK Mohanty on Friday.
Excise JAC chairman Y Adinarayana Murthy said that they served the strike notice 60 days in advance. “We know that the employees of uniformed services should not join strike. But, we have no option. We will not cooperate with the government from Saturday and go on strike after 60 days,” he said.
There are 26 excise depots in Seemandhra region and each depot would earn an income of `2 crore daily.