The meeting of the Board of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation scheduled to be held on Monday assumes significance in the wake of key decisions that are expected to come up before it. The meeting was initially slated for Saturday (June 28) but was postponed.
Most important among agenda items is the demand for fixing 60 years as the retirement age of employees. A.P. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has already announced the same for State government employees and hence expectations are high. Also, RTC personnel have been asking for wages on par with State government employees and increase in retirement age was added to their wish list.
Other matters to be discussed will be vacancy of the post of Chairman after M. Satyanarayana Rao resigned recently. Clarity on whether a chairman, being a political nominee, should be appointed in the brief interlude before APSRTC is bifurcated eludes those in authority. While the bifurcation line is yet to be officially drawn, Executive Director-Operations G.V. Ramana Rao has already been made Joint Managing Director of the corporation’s Telangana division.
Also, there are reports that there was a communication from the erstwhile AP Government, prior to June 2 when the new Telangana State was formed, that status quo be maintained on ‘de-merger’ plans, till August 31. This is due to the fact that complete agreement is yet to be arrived at, on distribution of assets especially because there is involvement of the Centre, what with the Government of India being one of the investors in the corporation.
When contacted, a senior officer on the Board said while most proposals pertaining to the ‘de-merger’ were already with the government, there were many more that needed to be firmed up before being sent for approval. “Fact remains that we are not fully ready with our plans,” he said, adding that though much water had flowed under the bifurcation bridge, important steps were yet to be taken.
“All decisions in the corporation are taken in the Board first and forwarded to the State government for final approval and importantly, some of the decisions have to be endorsed by the Centre,” said a union leader, on condition of anonymity.
