Talks between power employees, CM fail

HYDERABAD: As large parts of Seemandhra continued to grope in darkness, there was a sense of anticipation on Tuesday night that the Electricity Employees' Joint Action Committee would call off its indefinite strike.

But after two hours of negotiations with Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, the JAC leaders told reporters that the talks had failed. 'The Chief Minister has requested us to call off our agitation but we have decided to continue our strike.

We are not going to exempt even essential services,' they asserted. However, a release from the Chief Minister's Office claimed the JAC leaders had responded 'positively' and promised to exempt essential services.

It further said the JAC leaders had promised to discuss with their district level committees and decide on calling off the stir altogether. The JAC leaders did confirm the latter part but insisted, 'the strike is on because we want a clear and categorical statement that the State will remain united.'

The APNGOs too toed much the same line ahead of their talks with the Chief Minister Wednesday. 'We will continue our strike till a categorical statement comes from Delhi that the State will remain united,' APNGOs' Association president P Ashok Babu said and announced that they will stage a protest in Delhi this month-end. On the positive side, officials expect the APSRTC staff to call off their strike Wednesday.

The electricity employees' strike which began Sunday has paralysed normal life and hit patients particularly hard with doctors unable to conduct surgeries in several hospitals.

Water supply has also been affected in several towns and villages. As of Tuesday night, several districts are in complete darkness. The power shortage has been put at 4,190 MW.

Further compounding the problem, the Central power generation stations reduced production by nearly 700 MW due to shortage of coal and a technical problem.

As train services are being affected, the South Central Railway General Manager AK Mital spoke to Chief Secretary AK Mohnaty for regularisation of power supply. He asked his officials to stop all goods trains and use diesel locomotives to haul long distance express trains.

On Tuesday, the authorities restored all the trains that were cancelled Monday. Only the Secunderabad-Visakhapatnam Janmabhumi Express scheduled on Wednesday has been cancelled because of a technical problem.

Tension, meanwhile, continued to prevail in Vizianagaram where curfew is in force. However, the magnitude of violence came down drastically prompting the authorities to declare a two-hour relaxation from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Wednesday. They also promised to prevent traders from hiking prices of essential commodities by keeping a tight vigil.