Chennai, July 09: The indefinite strike by Tamil Nadu government employees and teachers entered the eighth day even as the Madras High Court is expected to deliver its order today on a batch of petitions challenging an amendment to Esma and subsequent government action against the striking employees. The state government's massive recruitment drive to replace employees dismissed under Esma also entered the third day across the state. At the secretariat, about 280 temporary assistants have been recruited till yesterday. The government has set a total recruitment target of 11,500. The government employees, who launched their strike on July 2 in support of their demands, including restoration of curtailed benefits, have announced they would take a decision on withdrawing their stir only after the court verdict.
According to a claim made by employees' counsels in the high court, over 4.7 lakh employees have been dismissed by the government so far for participating in the strike. A division bench of the high court will resume hearing on the petitions challenging among other things the July 4 ordinance amending Esma, which empowered the government to summarily dismiss striking employees and the government's appeal against the now suspended single judge's order which stayed the actions against the employees.
The court is likely to conclude hearing arguments today and might pronounce its order. Bureau Report