Seemandhra power employees begin indefinite strike

HYDERABAD: Stepping up their agitation, power employees in Seemandhra today began an indefinite strike to protest the decision to divide Andhra Pradesh.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy appealed to the agitating employees to resume their duties as power generation at several power stations in the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions and supply was impacted resulting in unscheduled power cuts in the two regions and also Hyderabad.

As of now, generation is being maintained to some extent and the transmission and distribution were affected at some places, official sources said.

The Seemandhra electricity employees associations had announced that about 70,000 employees of the AP transmission, generation corporation and distribution companies would go on strike.

A report from Vijayawada said six out of seven units of Vijayawada Thermal Station were shutdown due to employees' strike in support of Samaikhyandra.

Meanwhile, the South Central Railway has cancelled several passenger trains running on Kazipet-Vijayawada, Vijayawada-Gudur-Tirupati sections today with a view to handle any situation arising out of possible break in power supply to Railways.

In the morning, three trains were stopped between Vijayawada-Gudur by Samaikhyandhra agitators and later they were resumed with police escort, sources said.

The Jaipur-Chennai Express, Secunderabad-Gudur Simhapuri Express and Yaswantapur-Howrah Express trains were stopped on Vijayawada-Gudur Section, railway sources said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy appealed to the employees of the power generation, transmission corporations and and distribution companies "to resume their duties immediately since their strike is seriously impacting important services like hospitals, drinking water, railways etc."

He held a review meeting on the situation with senior officials of energy department, transmission and distribution companies, official sources said.

The employees should rethink about their strike on humanitarian grounds as general public is suffering for no fault of theirs, Reddy said in his appeal.

He has also directed the chief secretary and DGP to monitor the law and order situation closely and take stringent action against anti-social elements, sources said.