A piece of land given to the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) years ago and taken back by the district administration recently for not putting it to use, has turned into a rallying point for leaders of trade unions.
Tuesday and Wednesday saw leaders of the APSRTC Employees’ Union staging protests against what they alleged as “an attempt to hand over RTC properties to the corporate sector”.
“Attempts are on to hand over a stretch of 23 acres of land belonging to the APSRTC to private companies. This land houses RTC’s fully functional training academy. Talks are on to give away this land to the corporate sector. To compensate, the government has proposed a 10-acre land near Mallavalli forest area, which is nearly 50 km away from Vijayawada,” said Y. Venkateswara Rao, deputy general secretary of the Employees’ Union.
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Mr. Rao said this was not an isolated case. An area of 15 cents at the RTC’s main depot garage was given away for expansion of the Krishnalanka police station, adjacent to the structure. Besides, the RTC land in the old bus stand was also being taken away to cater to the needs of firms. Mr. Rao said that taking into consideration the serious financial crisis the corporation was facing, the government should allocate land to set up common facilities for the staff and workers like hospital, kalyana mandapam, body-building unit, central stores and guest houses. But not an inch of land was given to the RTC and, instead, the government was trying to take away whatever limited resources the corporation had.
“Fears unfounded”
APSRTC Vice-Chairman and Managing Director M. Malakondaiah said the charges were “baseless”. He sought to clarify that the land in question originally belonged to the government. “It was a 6 acre-15 cents-land given to APSRTC several years back but it was not put to use in any way. The Krishna District Collector issued an order last year stating that since the land was lying unused, it was being taken back.”
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He said an alternative land was proposed, but the RTC officials did not find it suitable.
Mr. Malakondaiah denied reports of giving away RTC land for police station expansion. “There is no truth in this. There is no such effort in progress,” he said.
Committee sought
The Employees’ Union, meanwhile, has sought constitution of a committee to identify RTC properties and their encroachments so that they could be adequately protected.
The leaders have also urged the Government to allocate 70 acres to the Corporation for immediate infrastructural needs.