Hyderabad, April 16: Congress leaders stand divided on regional lines on GO 177 issued recently by the Kiran Kumar Reddy government.
Several leaders from Telangana want the government to withdraw the GO, their counterparts from the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions said that it was not a new policy decision and the GO was issued to provide ‘clarity and guidance’ to the employees concerned.
The government, vide GO Ms No 177 dated April 13, 2011, asked the authorities concerned to take action which includes ‘No work, no pay’ against employees who participate in unconventional and different types of agitations like “strikes, bandhs, pen-down, chalk-down, tool-down and non-cooperation by signing the attendance registers but not attending official work’’.
Endowment minister Jupalli Krishna Rao said the GO would curb employees’ democratic rights. G Vivek, MP, said the GO was intended to suppress the interests and rights of the employees and people of Telangana who were involved in the Telangana movement. The more the suppression, the more expressive would become Telanganites, he warned.
PCC spokesman and MLA Gandra Venkataramana Reddy urged the government to clear the doubts and apprehensions in the employees on the GO.
Former minister T Jeevan Reddy remarked that there was no need for the government to issue a separate GO and urged the Telangana ministers to bring the GO up for a discussion at tomorrow’s cabinet meeting.
On the other hand, PCC spokesman N Tulasi Reddy and MLC Paladugu Venkata Rao said the government had only reiterated the rules of employees’ conduct.
It was not correct to say that the GO was meant to suppress the rights of the employees, they said.
–Agencies