Telangana: Trains run on diesel, talks with striking power staff fail, Centre sets up GoM

Hyderabad/ New Delhi/Chennai: Talks between Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and striking electricity employees failed on Tuesday night with the latter deciding to continue the agitation against creation of Telangana state. After two rounds of talks, Chairman of the Power Employees Joint Action Committee Sai Baba told reporters that after the CM requested them to call off the strike, they told him, they would get back after talking to joint action committees in the districts. "As of now, the strike continues", he said. Work on producing over 6,000 MW has been halted, though the full generation capacity in nearly 11,000MW. Trains, hospitals, water supply, ATMs were badly affected as almost the entire Seemandhra region remained in darkness for the third day running. Power generation has stopped in VTPS, RTPPS, GMR, GVK, Spectrum and Reliance private power projects, besides the Srisailam and Sileru hydro power stations.In Vijayawada, ATS were working with generators at malls, but elsewhere they were locked down because of lack of cash and electricity. Most of the hospitals are running on generators. In Visakhapatnam, power supply to industries was curtailed fearing grid collapse.The IT industry was the worst hit due to power cuts, while the South Central railway halted running of all goods trains and decided to use diesel engines to run passenger trains. The Bhubaneswar-Visakhapatnam Inter City, scheduled to leave on Wednesday, was cancelled.Meanwhile, protests continued in Seemandhra with the state machinery completely paralysed, governent-run schools closed, and over six lakh government employees and teachers on strike.Protests against the proposed division of the state showed no signs of abating, with government employees and students staging demonstrations outside central government offices and nationalised banks.They also tried to blockade the residences of central and state ministers, members of parliament and state legislature.Vizianagaram town in coastal Andhra remained under curfew for the fourth day. Curfew was relaxed for one hour in the morning, during which no untoward incident was reported.About 30,000 employees of power utilities in Seemandhra's 13 districts stayed away from work, almost paralysing generation and transmission.The strike has plunged several towns and hundreds of villages in darkness. Production in hundreds of industries also has come to a grinding halt.The strike has brought to a standstill generation in all major power plants in Seemandhra. The strike has also impacted Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana with authorities imposing power cuts to tide over the shortage.The state has a demand of 11,000 MW, but only 7,200 MW is being supplied. According to officials of Andhra Pradesh Generation Corporation (AP Genco), generation of 3,870 MW has come to a halt.In the national capital, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu continued his hunger strike for the second day, demanding talks with the leaders of all regions of the state to find an amicable solution to the current turmoil.Opposing the state's division, YSR Congress party chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy also persisted with his hunger strike in Hyderabad for the fourth day.In Delhi, Congress general secretary in charge of party affairs in the state, Digvijaya Singh released to media letters written by both thed TDP and YSR Congress, supporting the formation of Telangana state.He reiterated that the decision was taken after consultation with all parties and ruled out going back on it. He appealed to Seemandhra employees to call off their strike and assured that the concerns of Seemandhra people would be addressed.The Centre on Tuesday ruled out imposing President's rule in AP, but late Tuesday announced setting up of a seven-member group of ministers (GoM) to look into issues of the bifurcation.Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters in New Delhi that there was "no plan for now to impose President's rule".Official sources said the GoM will look into distribution of resources like financial assets, water and electricity, and government staff, reorganisation of assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies and make recommendations on the boundaries of Telangana.It comprises Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Petroleum Minister M. Veerappa Moily and Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh.