Aizawl, Aug. 10: The Mizoram government today issued an order asking all its striking officers to resume duty on Wednesday and warned that action would be initiated against them if the appeal was ignored.

?The government of Mizoram is pained to find its group A officers? total abstention from their government duties by resorting to mass casual leave since August 8, 2005, despite the fact that the government had already made it clear that no such leave would be permissible in larger public interest and despite the government?s repeated appeal to them to resume duties.?

The order said there was a Supreme Court ruling against government employees resorting to strikes.

The order also said the government of Mizoram views the abstention of group A officers from government duty as amounting to unauthorised absence in the form of a strike which is illegal and that the officers concerned are ordered and directed ?to resume their respective duties forthwith and positively by 9 am on August 11, 2005 following which appropriate action shall be taken?.

Youth fest: Music, fashion shows and much more were in store for Mizo youth as a three-day musical extravaganza kicked off today. The governors of Nagaland and Mizoram, Shyamal Datta and A.R. Kohli, were present on the inaugural day of the festival.

The event was organised by the Mizoram art and culture department in collaboration with the North East Zone Cultural Centre, Dimapur. Governor A.R. Kohli, in his speech, thanked the NEZCC president for choosing Aizawl as the venue for the festival.