Even as State Ministers E V Velu, Muthusamy, and Mahesh Poyyamozhi were holding talks with JACTO - GEO, association of government employees and teachers at the State Secretariat on Tuesday afternoon, State Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu issued a statement, appealing to them to withdraw the token hunger strike on February 15 and indefinite strike announced from February 26 demanding the fulfilment of their various grievances.

Listing out the various welfare measures taken by the DMK regime in the last couple of years, Thennarasu said that though the government has the intention to fulfil the various requests of the government employees, the fund crunch faced by the State has increased a bit owing to the unexpected major expenditure incurred by the government for relief and rehabilitation works undertaken without financial assistance from the union government in the aftermath of the two major floods faced by the State recently, and the Rs 20,000 crore annual revenue loss suffered by the state due to the union government not extending the GST compensation period.

Stating that the government was taking various measures to increase its revenue and resolve the financial situation, Thennarasu said that as soon as the financial situation improves, the requests of the government employees/teachers would be fulfilled gradually based on the financial situation.