A day after Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao constituted a committee of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation officers to hold talks with trade unions, hundreds of striking employees converged at the Dilsukhnagar bus depot and raised slogans in favour of a merger of the transport juggernaut with the State government.
TSRTC Joint Action Committee leaders Ashwathama Reddy, Raji Reddy and Thomas Reddy, among others, said contrary to perception, they have not withdrawn the primary demand of the merger.
Mr. Ashwathama Reddy reacted to a statement issued from the CM’s Office and said the question of dropping this demand did not arise and that the strike would continue. He clarified that no trade union had mentioned anywhere that the demand for a merger had been retracted. He pointed out that so far trade unions had not received any invitation for discussions from the CM-constituted committee.
Several leaders from Opposition parties continued to rally behind striking employees and criticised the Chief Minister for not yielding to the employees’ demands. They claimed that the State government had been ‘misleading’ the High Court.
For amicable resolution
Earlier in the day, RTC Employees Union leader Mr. Raji Reddy and National Federation of Indian Road Transport Workers President H.V. Anantha Subba Rao demanded that the government amicably resolve the demands.
They also pointed out that they do not have access to documents which called for a partial privatisation of the TSRTC. “To say the least, these recommendations are very retrograde and amount to 50% privatisation. We are sure the workmen and their unions had not placed such demands,” Mr. Rao said. The NFIRTW sent a letter to the Chief Minister to the effect.
