Govt likely to invoke ESMA against striking employees

Dehradun: Government is mulling invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) after the striking employees of various departments continued to ignore the appeals and warnings issued. A final decision in this respect is likely to be taken by tomorrow.
Ministerial Employees meanwhile continued their strike for the 29th day today not taking any cognisance of the directives issued to them to return to work. Nearly 30,000 ministerial employees across the state are on strike since 11 January. An urgent meeting was summoned today by Chief Secretary NS Napalchyal to discuss the continuance of the strike by ministerial and other employees and invoking ESMA. The meeting continued till late into the evening and was attended by Principal Secretaries, Secretaries and senior police officers.
Highly placed sources indicated that a final decision on invoking ESMA was likely tomorrow once the deadline on returning to work got over. Action was likely against those who failed to join duty by tomorrow.