The harassed people of Seemandhra region, suffering total blackout for the last five days, heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday as the power sector employees decided to call of their strike “temporarily” in view of the growing cyclonic threat as well as the festival season.
Andhra Pradesh Power Employees Joint Action Committee decided to call off the strike after another round of talks with Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy at the Secretariat. “The Chief Minister assured us that the Assembly will pass a resolution against the bifurcation of the State”, said the JAC president Sai Baba. “But we are not calling off the strike totally. It is only a temporary move. Our agitation will continue in other forms”, he said.
However, it will take some more time for the power supply situation to return to normalcy especially in Seemandhra region where the two major thermal power plants and many hydel power plants had stopped working creating a shortfall of 4,700 MW. Apart from 30,000 fully time employees, 15,000 contract workers had also participated in the strike.
Even after the decision to call off the strike, Seemandhra and many other regions of Telangana suffered the power outage as the power generation in the major thermal and hydel plants had not resumed. Officials said that the situation will improve only after the closed plants are repaired which is expected to take some time.
The severe power crisis had brought the entire Seemandhra regions to a grinding halt, paralysing even the emergency services including hospitals and severely disrupting the train services. The State capital Hyderabad also suffered frequent power outages. Even on Thursday, the power supply was disrupted in the city for several hours.
The power employees called off the strike when the Indian Meteorological Department said that a deep depression has intensified in to the cyclonic storm and it lay centered 800 kms east of Visakhapatanam. It was likely to cross the coast around midnight on October 12 in the neighbouring State of Odisha.
In another development, the indefinite fast of YSR Congress president YS Jaganmohan Reddy came to an end on the fifth day as the Police forcibly moved him to a hospital late night on Wednesday. The police took the step in view of the warning of the doctors that his condition was deteriorating as he was suffering from dehydration and low BP and sugar levels.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, West Zone, Satyanrayana said that a team of Policemen shifted Jagan to the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences. The Police team, which reached Jagan’s residence lotus Pond
in Jubilee Hills area at around
11 pm, removed the barricades and took him in an ambulance. There was no resistance
from the supporters of Jaganmohan Reddy.
He had launched his indefinite fast on October 5 demanding “equal justice” to all the regions of Andhra Pradesh and opposing bifurcation of the State.
Meanwhile, the indefinite fast of Telugu Desam Party’s president and former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has entered fourth day on Thursday and a team of doctors was closely reviewing his health condition. “My fast will continue till the Telugu people get the justice”, said Naidu. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, controversial godman Baba Ramdev and Congress MP from Andhra Rayapati Sambasiva Rao were among the important personalities who visited Naidu’s hunger strike camp on Thursday.
While other Government employees in Seemandhra continued their indefinite strike demanding that the decision to bifurcate the State should be rolled back, the Government was hoping that they will also call off their agitation in view of the festival season including Dussehra on October 13 or 14 and Eid-ul-Azha on October 16.
The employees themselves were also under pressure from their own families as they were not in a position to celebrate the festival as they had not received their salaries for the last two months. There were indications that the organisations and employee unions in their meeting on Friday or Saturday will take a final decision on calling off the strike.
In the first indication of softening of employees stand, the deputy collectors association has called off the strike in view of the serious threat of a very severe cyclonic storm to the coastal Andhra region. The State Government has appealed to the employees, especially of the revenue and Panchayat Raj departments to withdraw the strike in view of the cyclone threat.
As the bus service of State owned Road Transport Corporation was off the roads for the last two months and train service was also disrupted the students of colleges had a harrowing time in returning homes as the festival holidays began on Wednesday.