AP JAC insists on written assurance from government

Vijayawada: The state government employees led by AP JAC Amaravati will decide on going ahead their scheduled protest programme from March 9, Thursday, in the state executive meeting to be held on the day.

On the invitation of Group of Ministers and chief secretary, the AP JAC Amaravati leaders, including its chairman Bopparaju Venkateswarlu, secretary general P Damodar Rao, treasurer V V Muralikrishna Naidu, B Kishore Kumar, D Eswar, K Sangita Rao, S Malliswara Rao and A Sambasiva Rao met chief secretary K S Jawahar Reddy and discussed their demands.

Later, speaking to media persons, JAC chairman Venkateswarlu said that the government promised to clear pending bills in three phases. He said that they had demanded a written commitment on the assurances given by state government over clearance of arrears before month-end. If the government hands over the minutes on the assurances, they will decide on future course of action by convening an executive meeting on Thursday. If the government fails to clear pending arrears, they will proceed as per their agitation schedule. He said that the government assured to discuss DA arrears on March 16.

It may be noted that the Group of Ministers conducted a meeting with employees JAC leaders on Tuesday where it promised to clear arrears to the tune of Rs 3,000 crore by March-end. The government also promised to clear other arrears to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore by September in two phases.

At the same time, the ministers' sub-committee requested the JAC members to call off their agitation programme scheduled to start on March 9. As part of it, another meeting was held before the chief secretary on Wednesday and the employees leaders made it clear that until they receive written assurance from government they will not withdraw their scheduled agitation programme.