Taking the government by surprise, the striking Telangana employees at the Secretariat today visited various departments and requested their working colleagues, almost all of them belonging to the Seema Andhra region, to give up work and boycott duties in support of their mass general strike.

The Seema Andhra working employees, who never supported the strike, obliged the request with a view to avoid confrontation with their Telangana colleagues and came out of their offices.

The JAC leaders of the Telangana employees’ associations hit upon this idea as there was no adverse affect of the mass general strike on the Secretariat ever since the agitation began on September 13.

Though the attendance of the staff at the secretariat was thin on Monday because of the RTC staff strike, it was nearly 80 per cent during the last week. Even today also, there was good attendance as the RTC ran its bus services with police escort from several staff colonies in the city to the secretariat.

Added to this, congress general secretary Ms. Renuka Chaudary also commented that the strike had failed as the state secretariat functioned normally. Anxious at the fact that their strike had no impact on the secretariat, the striking T employees decided to request their Andhra colleagues to cooperate with them and boycott their duties.

The government promised to provide security to those attending duties but the development came as a shock to the political establishment at the secretariat. It is yet to be seen whether the Seema Andhra employees had obliged their T colleagues only for the day or will continue to support them as long as the strike continues.