ESMA ( Essential Services Maintenance Act )

हाल  ही में उत्तराखंड सरकार ने ESMA  लागू  किया  जिसके तहत शिक्षक ६ माह तक  हड़ताल नही कर सकेंगे। .....
आये जानिए  ESMA ........

The Essential Services Maintenance
Act (Esma) was enacted in 1968, to (as
its name indicates) maintain
“certainessential services and the
normal life of the community.” The
Act includes a long list of “essential
services” in its charter -- ranging from
post and telegraph, through railway,
airport and port operations -- and it
prohibits the key employees in these
services from striking.
But the Act also allows states to choose
the essential services on which to
enforce Esma. (Jammu and Kashmir,
incidentally, is exempt from Esma.) So
for instance, only some days ago,
Andhra Pradesh decreed that its IT
industry was an essential service. This
thrilled bodies like National
Association of Software & Service
Companies (Nasscom) because, as one
industry representative put it:
”[W]hat this means for employees is
that they cannot resort to strikes. Also,
they cannot cite bandhs or a curfew as
an excuse not to report to work.
Moreover, companies which depend
heavily on outside transport providers
had to bear the brunt as the transport
services were hit during a bandh or a
curfew.”
Esma gives police the right to arrest,
without a warrant, anybody violating
the Act’s provisions. ”Any person who
commences a strike...or otherwise
takes part in...any such strike shall be
punishable with imprisonment for a
term which may extend to six months,
or with fine which may extend to two
hundred rupees, or with both,” the Act
reads. ”Any person who instigates...a
strike which is illegal under this Act
shall be punishable with
imprisonment for a term which may
extend to one year, or with fine which
may extend to one thousand rupees,
or with both.”