Chennai: Invoking the amended ESMA provisions, the Tamil Nadu government has dismissed thousands of employees and teachers from service throughout the state, even as the strike entered the fourth day on July 5, sans the agitations, because of week-end holidays.

Though the exact number of dismissed employees was yet to trickle in, the Joint Action Council claimed that nearly one-lakh employees had been dismissed from service throughout the state. Notices containing the names of dismissed personnel have been pasted on the doors of several departments. The number of dismissed in the city had been put at 10,000 and in the Secretariat, the seat of power, at 4,000. There are a little over 5,000 employees in the Secretariat.

Police sources said a little over 2,200 employees had been arrested in the past three days for "inciting" employees who were keen on resuming work.

Meanwhile, a press release from the Secretariat Employees' Association said the strike would continue without any let-up till their demands were conceded by the government. The strike would be intensified from July 7 when all the 12-lakh employees, along with their family members, would participate in the statewide demonstrations.

"We strongly condemn the government's action of resorting to midnight arrest of employees, including women. This is nothing but a mini-Emergency," the release said.

PTI