IT youth welcome ESMA Act

For the first time in the country, the State government has come out with an order bringing the IT industry under the purview of Essential Services Maintenance Act of 1971. The main intention to bring the IT industry under the cover of ESMA was because of political and communal tension in the city.

The move has come in the State at a time when it is finding ways to tackle the Telangana issue, which threatens to jeopardise the prospects of the economy. A representation was made by the National Association of Software & Service Companies (Nasscom), the industry's representative body, on February 15 this year in the wake of the agitations for a separate Telangana state, which started in December 2009 that crippled business and threatened the image of 'Brand Hyderabad'.

The Hyderabad Software Exporters Association and Nasscom had taken up the issue with Chief Minister K Rosaiah because the IT professionals had to stay away from work in December because of the ongoing Telangana agitation. The week-long curfew during the recent communal riots had also hit the movement of personnel and food supplies across Hyderabad.
The allied services, which kept the software industry running such as travel, transport and hospitality, would also be exempted and the employees in those services would not be allowed to go on strikes under the ESMA Act.

"It's a good step by Nasscom and State Government. The ESMA act will ensure proper functioning of software and other IT industries in State. This move by the government would help the IT industry in Hyderabad in winning back the confidence of the clients and bring back the lost glory," said, A Prabhakar, software engineer.

Not to forget, some offices of IT companies were attacked in Hyderabad, and during the frequent bandhs, attendance in IT offices was badly affected impacting productivity and customer confidence.

"It's a positive step by the State government, now any employee or organisation cannot resort to strikes. Also, they cannot cite bandhs or a curfew as an excuse not to report to work. With the industry being declared an Essential Service, all this will be passé," said Aditya Sarat, an IT employee. Since 1995, the software industry had driven a blooming BPO and ITeS services industry in Andhra Pradesh, providing jobs to over 3.2 lakh software engineers directly and another 15 lakh persons indirectly.

—Anubha K. Singh