RTC strike: Full-fledged busfleet from Sunday, says TSRTC

Hyderabad: As the deadline to withdraw the strike call for RTC unions was over by 6 pm on Saturday, now, all eyes are on the Telangana state government. Will the TRS government invoke ESMA or dismiss the staff for participating in the strike? These are the questions making rounds across the State. The State government will meet again on Sunday to discuss the future course of action to mitigate the problem. The TSRTC management says 4,000 drivers and 2,000 conductors have been recruited and will run full-fledged fleet from Sunday onwards. However, the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of RTC unions announced that it would go on indefinite hunger strike at Indira Park from Saturday.

Meanwhile, a high-level committee meeting is scheduled for Sunday at 1 pm to resolve the problems of RTC employees. The Chief Minister Mr K Chandrashekhara Rao will discuss with the RTC, transport department and Police officials on the RTC strike and possible solution to ease out the current turmoil.

Voicing the support to the demands, the opposition parties joined the RTC staff. “If the government arrests RTC employees, the jails in the State are not enough to keep them. Invoking ESMA is not good for the State,” said CPM leader Narayana.

“The TRS government shouldn’t invoke ESMA. The Chief Minister Mr KCR should intervene and resolve the issue at the earliest,” said Dr K Laxman, BJP-T unit president.

The RTC management said that “about 40,000 employees are on strike. We have deployed 6,300 temporary staff to ease out pressure for passengers. Further, 1,155 private buses, 1,195 buses of educational institutions, cabs and other sectors and 2,778 other vehicles are in action.”

Ruling out this, Mr Ashwathama Reddy, chairman, RTC JAC, said that “only 160 employees joined duty today. We’ll stage dharnas in front of all the bus depots across the State on Saturday. All the employees displaying Bathukammas would demand the inclusion of the RTC into the state government. The JAC will observe the indefinite hunger strike at Indira Park from Saturday.”