With only about 500 TSRTC employees reporting for duty by the deadline set by Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao which expired on Tuesday midnight, the government is now focusing on alternative transport arrangements.
Mr. Rao held a meeting at the Pragathi Bhavan here on Wednesday to review the ongoing RTC strike and the action plan to take forward the decision of the Cabinet to give permits to private operators in 5,100 routes of the total 10,400 routes.
The Chief Minister has already indicated that if the RTC workers did not meet the deadline to resume duty, the remaining routes will also be privatised. But government sources said KCR was in favour of keeping 50% of the existing routes with the RTC and run buses with private drivers.
The meeting that lasted for close to nine hours was attended by Transport Minister Puvvada Ajay, Chief Adviser Rajiv Sharma, top RTC officials, Advocate General among others. The meeting, according to sources, mainly focused on the modalities to be adopted for inviting private bus operators in the routes already cleared by the Cabinet.
The meeting also discussed the affidavit that was submitted to the High Court on Wednesday. The affidavit was about the corporation’s revenue, assets, salaries of employees, liabilities and other issues.
Meanwhile, adding to the financial woes of the loss making RTC, the High Court ordered the corporation to pay ₹200 crore immeidately to the RTC Workers Credit Cooperative Society.
High Court Judge Justice Rajasekhar Reddy issued these orders while dealing with a case pertaining to RTC utilising CCS funds.
Incidentally, the State Transport Authority Secretary Mamata Prasad on Wednesday served a notice on the RTC to pay ₹452.86 crore transport tax dues and asked the corporation to settle the dues immediately.
