Imphal, March 12: Taps here ran dry today after workers of the water supply department joined the ongoing ceasework by government employees.

“We have snapped water supply from today with the employees of the water supply department joining the ceasework. We will not be frightened by the government’s threat of punitive action,” a spokesperson for the Joint Administrative Council (JAC) said today.

Reports said water tankers supplied water to the VIPs and those who could afford to pay for it, while the people suffered.

The government employees have been on a ceasework since January 16 under the banner of JAC, an apex body of employee unions in government departments. They are demanding implementation of the recommendations of the sixth Pay Commission in toto.

Ibobi Singh said his government would pay the increased salaries from April but not from January 2006 as demanded by the employees because the state did not have enough funds.

The snapping of water supply comes a day after police mounted a crackdown on striking employees of the government-run Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital yesterday and took 12 of them into custody. The strikers are yet to be released.

“We will court arrest en masse if the 12 arrested employees of the hospital are not released unconditionally,” the JAC spokesperson said.

The hospital employees had joined the strike on March 9, forcing patients admitted in the wards to shift to other hospitals.

The employees have ignored chief secretary D.S. Poonia’s threat of administrative action if workers in essential services join the strike.

The home department has also issued an order banning strikes by employees in essential services for six months. Ibobi Singh warned the employees that the government would not remain silent if the essential services were affected during the budget session of the Assembly, which concluded yesterday.

Some employees of the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital resumed work yesterday but many are yet to report for duty.

The medical superintendent of the hospital, S. Ibomcha Singh, today submitted a list of the employees who failed to report for duty to medical director Y. Yaima for further action.

However, there is no report yet of any step being taken to punish the strikers.

Sources said employees of the power department are planning to join the agitation in the next few days while government drivers would stop work from Monday.

The Manipur Secretariat Services Association, which is yet to join the strike, appealed to the chief minister to change his stand of not paying the hike from January 2006.