TSRTC fiasco: Congress seeks Centre intervention

Hyderabad: Telangana Congress Committee has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to save 49,000 employees and their families by protecting TSRTC from TRS government’s privatisation plan. Congress MPs — Uttam Kumar Reddy, A Revanth Reddy and K Venkat Reddy — wrote a letter to PM Modi to take necessary steps to save TSRTC and its 49,000 employees. They expressed concerns over the plight of the RTC employees after calling off the 50-day strike, as TRS government is not accepting them. As many as 30 employees died during the strike period as some committed suicide, due to heart attack, etc.

“49,000 TSRTC employees want to resume work as they called off the strike. However, the TRS government is not accepting the employees and deployed huge police force at bus depots, and bus stands in Telangana. Students, the physically challenged, farmers, all sections of society, particularly rural passengers, have been suffering for the past 53 days. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao wants to privatise TSRTC. We request the Centre to intervene and take necessary action to protect TSRTC,” said the Congress MPs.

“The Government of India (GoI) has 33 per cent stake in TSRTC, and we request the Centre to intervene immediately and protect thousands of jobs,” the Congress MPs said in the letter.

APSRTC in the united Andhra Pradesh was the largest and best public transport corporation in India. APSRTC entered the Guinness Book of World Records. “After the bifurcation of united AP, the division of APSRTC into two entities for Andhra and Telangana (TSRTC) was not done properly. There is no proper documentation of the concurrence of the central government, which holds 33 per cent stake in the combined APSRTC. The headcount of TSRTC came down to 49,000 from 57,000 in Telangana. Properties of TSRTC are located in prime areas across Telangana and are worth tens of thousands of crores,” explained the Congress leaders in the letter.

K Chandrasekhar Rao-led TRS government is wilfully neglecting TSRTC by not reimbursing subsidies on account of several types of bus passes including students, senior citizens, physically challenged, journalists, etc. Moreover, the TRS government has imposed higher taxes on diesel and petroleum products for TSRTC, which also has no full-time MD for several years.