The demand for recognising the employees of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) as COVID-19 frontline workers and getting them vaccinated free of cost on a priority basis is fast gaining momentum.
The TSRTC Employees’ Union has urged the management of the public transport entity to ensure that all the employees of the corporation, including drivers and conductors, get COVID vaccine free of cost at the earliest.
A delegation of the union has submitted a memorandum to this effect to the managing director of the TSRTC in Hyderabad on Saturday.
The TSRTC bus crew worked on the front line during lockdown in operating mobile outlets for distributing essential commodities in containment zones in adherence to the safety protocols last year, recalled TSRTC Employees’ Union Khammam region secretary P. Appa Rao.
Several TSRTC employees tested positive and a few of them succumbed to the infection during the peak of the pandemic last year, he said.
Bus drivers and conductors besides mechanics are at an increased risk of exposure to coronavirus and some of the drivers are rendering crucial services in operation of mini-buses turned mobile COVID testing labs, he noted, stressing on the need for considering the staff as frontline workers.
