Scores of TSRTC employees try to rejoin, taken into preventive custody

Hyderabad: Scores of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation employees were taken into preventive custody after they attempted to resume duties today. The action comes a day after the TSRTC issued a statement on Monday refusing to take back the striking workers citing High Court orders.

The 52-day-long RTC strike was called off on November 25, and the employees had decided to report for duties from 6 am today.

Officials said the police arrested 164 TSRTC employees from Midhani bus depot as a security measure. Fifty RTC staffers from Falaknuma bus depot and 45 from Farooqnagar bus depot have also been taken into preventive custody.

Around 200 police officers have been deployed at the bus depot at Midhani, wherein seven bus drivers have been arrested for protesting and attempting to rejoin duty.

Several RTC employees protested in front of their respective bus depots after being unable to resume work. Commuters at various bus stands have been waiting for buses to ply since the morning. However, temporary bus drivers and conductors have continued their duties in most places.

The attempts of RTC workers to rejoin duty were thwarted by the TSRTC management, which insisted on calling their demands ‘illegal’. Terming the RTC JAC’s statement on joining duties ‘ridiculous’, the TSRTC management had announced that “Till the process as suggested by the High Court is completed, workers who are on illegal strike cannot be taken back on duties. Nowhere in any Public Sector Undertaking in the country, workers and employees abstaining from duties and joining their duties at their whims and fancies will happen nor it can be accepted.”

The managing director of TSRTC had also appealed to the formerly striking employees to not create any law and order issues, and ensure smooth functioning of transport.