The striking Seemandhra Secretariat employees on Thursday refused to oblige the request of chief secretary PK Mohanty to call off their strike.
The chief secretary held talks with them and wanted them to end the strike in view of the hardships being faced by the people.
The chief secretary said that two cyclone warnings were issued and the strike would cause problems in taking up relief operations. The cyclones would affect the people in Seemandhra region and wanted the employees to end the strike.
The chief secretary also said the Seemandhra employees were on strike for more than 50 days now, which is more days than the Telangana employees’ agitation in the past.
However, the Seemandhra Secretariat employees told the chief secretary that they would not call off their strike as the people of Seemandhra would suffer more than now if the state is divided.
They said they would call off their strike if they received a categorical assurance from the Centre that it would not divide the state.
The Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted to deal with the strike was likely to meet the Secretariat Seemandhra employees on Friday at the Secretariat.
“The GoM can only request us to call off the strike. They are not in a position to give an assurance that the state will not be divided. Any assurance should come from Delhi. There will be no headway in talks with GoM,” Secretariat Seemandhra Employees Forum chairman U Murali Krishna said.