No school, no power for the strike

Public transport has come to a halt. Schools and colleges are shut, and have postponed their exams for over 30 lakh students. Power supply has been disrupted, with coal production virtually halted, and sanitation too has begun to suffer as over 4 lakh employees in all sectors remain off duty, protesting against the delay in the creation of a Telangana state.

The strike was called for by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) on September 13. The state government has since invoked a no-work, no-pay rule but it has had no effect on those on strike.

Rather, Telangana Rashtra Samiti president K Chandrasekhara Rao has threatened a fast-unto-death. Rajya Sabha member K Keshava Rao said Wednesday all Telangana MPs will resign if the Centre does not take a decision by September 30. With 70,000 workers of Singareni Collieries on strike, power generation has been hit so badly that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has sought help from the Centre, urging New Delhi to divert power from the Central grid and to arrange for the supply of coal from Orissa. The government has imposed power cuts of eight hours in rural areas and two hours in urban ones.

Singareni Collieries’ daily production of 1.20 lakh tonnes has been 30,000 tonnes in the last one week, its public relations officer K Chandrasekhar said Wednesday. As a result, the AP Power Generation Corporation, which depends on Singareni Collieries for 65 per cent of its coal requirement, has been receiving only 10,000 tonnes for the last eight days; its usual supply was 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes a day. The NTPC, which needs 30,000 tonnes daily, has been receiving only 12,000 tonnes since the strike began, affecting power generation there too.

Related posts:

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2. ‘Sakala Janula Samme’ strike enters 25th day
3. T stir triggers power crisis in Andhra Pradesh
4. CM faces power cut in Telangana heat
5. More T MLAs threaten to quit
6. CM, KKR sends power SOS to PM
7. Telangana strike hits power flow
8. Telangana strike pushes Andhra to brink of darkness
9. ‘Sakala Janula Samme’ threatens to leave others ‘power’less
10. Stir over Telangana intensifies