Telangana employees to call off agitation

[katharnak]

Hyderabad, March 4: The government employees from Telangana have 'temporarily' called off their non-cooperation agitation after talks with the Andhra government ended on a positive note late on Friday night.

The Telangana employees, under the aegis of the Joint Action Committee, had launched the non-cooperation agitation and abstained from work since February 17.

The government conceded the main demands of the JAC, including ensuring a 42% share in jobs to people from Telangana, constituting a judicial committee to review the implementation of presidential order in respect of government jobs and cancelling the 'illegal deputation' of officers.

JAC leader Swami Goud signed an agreement with the government on implementation of the demands in the presence of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.

"Based on the assurance given by the government, we are calling off the non-cooperation agitation temporarily. We shall now carry on our agitation in another form till our main demand of creating Telangana state is conceded. If the government fails to honour the agreement, we would not hesitate to go on strike," Swami Goud told reporters later.

Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha, who was part of the Cabinet sub-committee that held negotiations with the JAC, said they have agreed to lead a delegation of JAC leaders to New Delhi to discuss certain pending issues with the Central government which includes constitution of a separate Public Service Commission for Telangana.