October 7: patients light candles and use hand fans at the King George hospital during a power outage at Visakhapatnam
With a severe cyclone forecast for Saturday night for Andhra Pradesh, a power crisis in the districts that are likely to be affected is about to end. Thousands of employees who work for state-run power plants have agreed to end their six-day long strike, held to punish the Centre for its decision to bifurcate the state.
The breakthrough came this afternoon in talks between chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and representatives of unions, who promised that employees will report to work at 6 AM on Friday. They warned that their decision is based on a commitment to assisting the state to withstand the impact of the cyclone, and that their strike may resume later.
Last week, the centre sanctioned urgent steps to carve out Telangana - one of the three regions of Andhra Pradesh - as a complete state. The other two regions - Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, which have 13 districts between them and are referred to as Seemandhra - reacted with fierce protests.
But the government in Delhi has ruled out reconsidering its plans. "I do not think there is any possibility of going back," Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said at his monthly press conference in New Delhi. (
Highlights of Sushil Kumar Shinde's press briefing)
He did not commit to whether the Telangana Bill will be tabled during the Winter session of Parliament, and said the Group of Ministers, set up to look into the bifurcation of the state will submit its report as early as possible and "the people of Andhra Pradesh will gest justice."
Asked whether the Centre was planning to impose President's rule in the state, Mr Shinde said, "that I cannot say now".
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has blamed Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy's Congress government for inaction and demanded President's rule in the state.
Jagan Mohan Reddy and Chandrababu Naidu, the heads of two other regional parties, embarked on hunger strikes to fight the Centre. Mr Naidu's fast is in its fourth day in Delhi. Mr Reddy was moved by the police in Hyderabad last night to a hospital where he was force-fed after doctors warned that his health was worrying because he had not eaten in five days. (
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