Tension continues to prevail outside TSRTC bus depots across the State on Tuesday after the employees, who called off their 52-day old strike, had tried to rejoin duties.
Police detained scores of employees, who tried to prevent buses run by temporary drivers from coming out of the depots. As they were prevented from rejoining duties, the staff began to protest raising slogans against the management, and the government.
Staff-police face off
In Karimnagar, employees arrived at their respective depots in the district carrying joining letters to resume their duties early in the morning. However, authorities manning the depots did not allow them. Even the police prevented their entry into the depot premises.
When the workers tried to obstruct the movement of buses being operated by temporary drivers and conductors, police swung into action and arrested the protestors and shifted them to the Commissionerate Training Centre on the town’s outskirts.
Two workers were hospitalized in Karimnagar town after they sustained injuries in the melee as police tried to arrest them. Karimnagar I Depot mechanic Krishnaiah suffered chest pain and he was shifted to the hospital from the Police Training Centre. Similarly, Padma, a woman conductor had collapsed after her pulse rate dropped, and shifted to hospital.
Many workers turned emotional and wept at not being allowed to enter the depots.
Tension in old Medak Dt.
The scene was similar across several depots in the erstwhile Medak district when some employees tried to join duties but were prevented by police. None of the hired employees were allowed inside the depots by police without ascertaining their identity.
Police arrested some employees as the latter came in batches and tried to enter the Medak depot, and were shifted to police station. About 30 employees were arrested so far.
In Adilabad heavy police bandobust ensured that none of the staff could reach the depot, though many of them arrived close to the depots quite early. About 50 workers and employees under the RTC JAC banner were arrested and shifted to Two Town Police Station. The frequency of bus services from various depots was reported to be lower than the normal owing to the tense situation prevailing around the bus depots.
Tight security
Employees were detained by police when they tried to head to towards bus depots in Khammam, Sattupalli and Kothagudem towns in a bid to join duty despite the management refusing to take them back. Police personnel were deployed in large numbers and barricades were set up at all the bus depots in the erstwhile composite Khammam district to stop the RTC staff from reaching bus depots.
Tight security arrangements were made at bus stands to ensure uninterrupted operation of buses with temporary crew.
(With inputs from K.M. Dayashankar (Karimnagar), R. Avadhani (Sangareddy), S. Harpal Singh (Adilabad) & P. Sridhar (Khammam)
