M A I N   N E W S

Telangana tussle
Employees’ talks with CM fail; health, transport services hit
Suresh Dharur/TNS

Hyderabad, October 8
The spectre of southern power grid collapse is looming large with more than 30,000 employees of electricity department in the Seemandhra region of Andhra Pradesh vowing to continue their indefinite strike following failure of talks with the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy here tonight.

As major parts of the state reeled under unprecedented power outages, the Chief Minister reached out to the striking staff and held two rounds of talks with their representatives but to no avail.

The talks failed to break the impasse as the Seemandhra electricity employees Joint Action Committee leaders insisted on continuing their strike. They turned down the Chief Minister’s appeal to exempt the emergency services from the strike. “We have decided to continue the strike,” the employees’ JAC chairman Saibaba said after the meeting. They vowed to continue their stir till the Centre gave an assurance on keeping AP united. The Chief Minister is expected to hold another round of talks tomorrow in a bid to end the deadlock.

The indefinite strike led to massive power outages, crippling normal life across the state. The state capital is also experiencing extended power cuts. While airports in Seemandhra have been operating on back-up systems, train services were the worst hit, forcing the Railways to either cancel or reschedule important trains. The mobile phone services are down across much of the state; internet and ATM services have also been affected.

Hospitals in Seemandhra have been badly hit. Incubators at Vishakhapatnam's King George Hospital, the city's only super-specialty government hospital, are not working properly due to lack of air-conditioning.

Official sources said generation of around 4,000 MW had been impacted due to the ongoing agitation. The state has a demand of 11,000 MW, but only 7,200 MW is being supplied.

Officials of the Andhra Pradesh Generation Corporation (AP Genco) said generation of 3,870 MW had come to a halt.

The authorities are purchasing 24 million units from outside the state to make up for the deficit.

Shinde rules out Prez Rule

New Delhi: Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde ruled out the possibility of imposing President's rule in Andhra Pradesh. "There is no plan under consideration to impose President's Rule in Andhra Pradesh. There was no such discussion in today's Cabinet (meeting)," he said.

Ministers skip Cabinet meet

Cabinet Ministers from Seemandhra — MM Pallam Raju (HRD), KS Rao (Textiles) and Chiranjeevi (Tourism) — skipped the Cabinet meet held on Tuesday. A restive Congress appealed to the people in the state to give up their agitation and said the GoM constituted by the Centre would hold consultations with all stakeholders.