Hyderabad, August 11: The Group of Ministers, entrusted with the task
of finding ways to avert the general strike of the employees scheduled for August 17, on Wednesday invited leaders of the Joint Action Committee to the negotiating table on Thursday for holding talks.
Coming down a step, the Group of Ministers decided to invite the Telangana employees’ leaders for discussions again, as the last meeting was of no consequence.
The decision for another round of talks was taken after a long sitting in Conference Hall of the D Block at the Secretariat today.
On August 5, though both the sides had met, the talks were boycotted by the leaders as they resented ESMA and enforcement of paramilitary forces.
In this background, at the meeting proposed for Wednesday, both the parties will once again come face to face and hopefully thrash out a solution.
At the end of today’s GoM meeting here, Finance Minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy spoke to media persons and expressed confidence that in the interests of people, the Telangana leaders will withdraw the strike notice as there were so many ways to find solutions to resolve the issues.
Stating that the paramilitary forces were called in only with an intention to provide security to all concerned including people, Mr Ramnarayana Reddy asked the leaders not to suspect the good intentions of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy. “The Chief Minister is keen on seeking the employees’ cooperation for implementing various welfare schemes for the poor,” the Finance Minister said.
Earlier, 48 Departments were brought under purview of ESMA and since then, eight more Departments have been brought under the said Act for ensuring continued services.
The Social Welfare Department was brought under ESMA control as 33 lakh poor students seek post-metric scholarships and reimbursement. Besides, pensions (29.45 lakh), mid-day meals (30 lakh), ration cards (79 lakh) were among the matters which have to be settled and which cannot be delayed.
The AP Dairy Development Cooperative Federation alone supplies four lakh of litres of milk daily in the Greater Hyderabad limits alone while six lakh litres was being supplied by others. Over four crore people in the Telangana region will suffer due to no proper services if staff go ahead with the strike.
The N Kiran Kumar Reddy government has started a new policy – a Green Channel – which will facilitate allocation of funds instantly without the intervention of Heads of the Departments. The policy has been designed to serve the interests of the students. Charges of hostels and messes can be met by the students under this Channel with no loss of time. The proposed stir, the Minister said, would paralyse the operations.
Labour Minister Danam Nagender, who is part of the GoM, said that GOs 176 and 177 were kept in abeyance as per the Court’s ruling and expressed concern that on an average over 9000 patients visit the government hospitals in Warangal, Osmania General Hospital and Gandhi Hospital. Their plight cannot be described if the hospitals’ staff go on strike, Mr Nagender said.
Later, Marketing Minister Mukesh Goud, also on the GoM panel, asked the Telangana leaders to have patience as in two or three months, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram would find a solution to the separate statehood issue.
The Ministers said that there was need to protect the interests of the citizens now as the government wanted to ensure that Ramazan and Vinayaka Chathurthi festivals would be celebrated with gaiety in August and September respectively.
Ministers N Raghuveera Reddy and Dharmana Prasada Rao were also present at the meeting.
——Agencies