The face-off between the Andhra Pradesh government employees and the Jagan Mohan Reddy government reached its climax on Wednesday evening, hours before their proposed “Chalo Vijayawada” rally.
Several employees’ union leaders went underground, switching off their mobile phones, as the police were on the lookout for them to take them into preventive custody ahead of the Vijayawada rally.
Many of the leaders have locked their homes and went into undisclosed locations.
The police are making frantic search for them so that they could arrest them to foil the rally. The leaders are firm that they would conduct the rally on Thursday.
At the same time, the Jagan government issued orders cancelling all the leaves of the employees so as to prevent them from going to Vijayawada rally.
Though many of them have applied for leaves well in advance, the authorities were strictly instructed not to accept the same.
The collectors issued warning to all the employees that if they abstain from duties on Thursday, strict action would be taken against them.
Even the heads of the departments were warned of strong action if they granted leaves to the subordinate staff.
Meanwhile, the traffic police imposed stringent restrictions in Vijayawada town.
All the roads from the neighbouring districts into the city have been barricaded so that no employee from any part of the state would enter the city.
However, JAC leaders declared that even lakhs of people are arrested, they would hold Chalo Vijayawada rally even with 10 employees.
A tense situation is prevailing in the city, as the police forces have been mobilised in thousands to thwart the rally.
