Hyderabad, Oct 25 (IANS): Government employees in Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh Monday night called off their 42-day-long strike for a separate Telangana state.

Leaders of Telangana Employees Joint Action Committee (TEJAC) decided to call off the strike following talks with Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Over 400,000 employees, who were on strike since Sep 13 as part of a people's strike to demand the creation of a Telangana state, will return to work from Tuesday

The chief minister agreed to all nine demands of the employees. The government and TEJAC leaders signed an agreement after several rounds of talks during the day.

The government agreed to treat the strike period as special leave and to pay the salaries by approaching the high court to seek exemption from "no work no pay" rule as a special case.

It also accepted the TEJAC's demand to withdraw cases booked against striking employees and reinstate those removed from service.

The government agreed to form a committee to monitor implementation of Government Order 610 relating to repatriation of employees belonging to other regions of the state.

With TEJAC's decision, all sections of employees and workers in the region have called off their strike.

Last week, teachers, transport employees and coal workers had withdrawn the strike.