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A confrontation is brewing between the state government and the striking Telangana employees with government sources indicating that action under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma) ‘No Work, No Pay’ rule will commence from Monday.

admin | September 18, 2011 | 0 Comments

A confrontation is brewing between the state government and the striking Telangana employees with government sources indicating that action under the Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma) ‘No Work, No Pay’ rule will commence from Monday. Telangana employees belonging to the APSRTC, who have already been brought under the purview of Esma, are scheduled to strike work from Sunday midnight.

Anticipating that the public transport will be affected badly, the state government has threatened a stringent action against RTC employees if they strike work, including terminating the services of the contract staff. According to the sources, the department heads have been instructed to invoke Esma provisions and slap notices on employees any day after Monday.

The state has already issued orders to the district offices not to process the salary bills of those employees who participated in the “Sakala Janula Samme” which began on September 13. The general administration department has asked various government offices to send the pay slips of only those who have not joined the strike.

As per the latest information, till now, the strike has been near total in Adilabad, Karimnagar, Mahbubnagar, Nizamabad and Warangal with only 10 to 20 per cent of the employees reporting for work. While 40 per cent of the employees have been attending to their duties in Medak, the figure has been 42 per cent in Khammam and Nalgonda. The strike has seen the least participation in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts with 80 per cent of the employees reporting for work.

Meanwhile, the power supply position improved a little bit on Saturday with the Mahanadi Coal fields in Odisha agreeing to send five rakes of coal to state everyday. The coal from the neighbouring state will be used to generate power in the thermal stations at Ramagundam, Kothagudem and Vijayawada. Singareni Collieries on Saturday produced 39,000 tonnes of coal after some mines at Manuguru, Illendu and Kothagudem resumed production. “The attendance at Manuguru was hundred per cent,” S Narsing Rao, CMD of Singareni Collieries, told STOI.

But the reserves at Singareni are also fast receding as the gap between demand and production is huge. As per Singareni sources, some of the units would be closed on Monday if the workers continued their strike. The attendance at Adilabad, Karimnagar and Warangal mines continue to be disappointing. To make up the gap between power demand and supply, the chief minister spoke with Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and requested the Centre’s help to tide over the present crisis. Shinde is learnt to have responded positively.

“In case the situation worsens, we are expecting power from the central generating stations in the southern grid,” Dinesh Kumar, principal secretary, energy, told STOI. Thanks to the improved power generation, the power cuts in the villages have been reduced to four hours from the present six hours and to two hours from four hours in towns. But the energy department is skeptical about managing the huge power demand if the strike continued beyond Monday.

The state on Friday consumed 10206 MW of power despite power cuts in the rural areas. The hydel generation is slowly coming down as the inflows from upstream are receding. With restriction on coal production due to the general strike, the AP Transco is treading cautiously and purchased nearly 7.950 million units from outside to handle the grid demand.