State govt employees defer agitation, hail Mulayam

Striking UP government employees deferred their week-old agitation against reservation in promotion after the Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die without passing the constitutional amendment bill on Thursday evening.

The Sarvajan Hitay Sanrakshan Samiti, which spearheaded the agitation, has called a meeting of employees' unions of all government departments on Sunday in Lucknow to review the situation. It has thanked Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and other party MPs for opposing the bill in the Lok Sabha. Samiti president Shailendra Dubey appealed to the employees to work extra hours from Friday to clear the backlog of work due to the week-long strike.

Amar Singh Patel of Secretariat Employees Association said that there would be celebrations at the Secretariat on Friday. "Samajwadi Party MPs highlighted our demands and did not allow the UPA government to get the Bill passed in the Lok Sabha," Patel said.

Earlier in the day, work in government offices remained paralysed and the employees once again targeted the state BJP office, pelting it with stones, shoes, eggs, tomatoes and brinjals. They burnt "effigies of Congress and BJP leaders", and blocked the road in front of the BJP office.

Because of the blockade, BJP workers could not celebrate the party's win in the Gujarat Assembly elections in daytime. While senior party leaders were in Delhi to meet national president Nitin Gadkari on the issue of the party's stand on the constitutional amendment bill, a group of workers and local leaders assembled at party office after the employees called off their agitation. They burst crackers, distributed sweets and raised pro-Narendra Modi slogans.

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