Govt. employees go on mass leave

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, APRIL 19. Normal work in State Government offices throughout Andhra Pradesh was affected on Thursday as employees went on a mass casual leave protesting against the move to downsize the administration.

On a call given by the Joint Action Committee of Employees, Teachers and Workers (JAC) representing 66 associations, they organised mass dharna programmes at erstwhile taluk headquarters, in front of Collectorates and in Hyderabad. Secretariat employees, who are not part of the JAC, did not participate in the programme.

The JAC launched its action programme following the breakdown of talks on Wednesday evening with the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, on the 30-point charter of demands.

Leaders of the JAC said they were not satisfied with the Chief Minister's assurance that the Government had no plans to retrench any employee as part of its ongoing efforts to restructure the administration. They said Mr. Naidu offered to give his response to as many as 20 demands only after discussing them with the three-member Cabinet sub-committee, comprising Messrs. Kadiam Srihari, B. V. Mohan Reddy and T. Sitaram.

However, they indicated that they were expecting an invitation in a day or two from the Government for another round of talks to resolve their demands. Pending a solution, the JAC is going ahead with a convention against privatisation and the contract system in Hyderabad on April 22, protest rallies throughout the State on May 1 and a general council meeting on May 12 to declare the date for an indefinite strike.

Talking to reporters during a large rally of NGOs, teachers and workers from Hyderabad and Rangareddi districts, near Indira Park here, the JAC secretary-general, Mr. B. Swaminadham, claimed that the JAC had succeeded in paralysing work in Government offices for the day by giving a call to its 10 lakh members to apply mass casual leave.

He flayed the Government for creating a sense of insecurity among the employees by implementing administrative reforms in a hasty and one-sided manner.

Earlier, addressing the assembled employees, the JAC chairman, Mr. G. Purnachandra Rao, said it was the very survival of the staff that was at stake due to the `misguided' actions of the Centre and the State Government.

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Section  : Southern States
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