The Congress party has decided to lay siege to Pragati Bhavan, the camp office-cum-official residence of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, on October 21 to step up pressure on the State government to resolve the ongoing strike by the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) employees.
Speaking to newspersons along with senior leader C. Damodar Rajanarasimha and Mohd. Ali Shabbir, working president of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) A. Revanth Reddy alleged here on Tuesday that irresponsible statements by several ministers and the Chief Minister had been pushing the striking employees into distress which resulted in a couple of employees ending their life and a few more making an attempt to end life and a few more deaths caused by the insecurity over their jobs arising out of the statements.
“During the Telangana movement and during the run up to 2014 elections, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao had declared that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) would not allow even a small prick by thorns in the feet of RTC employees (meaning they would be taken care of well in Telangana) as they had wholeheartedly supported the movement for Telangana State. However, instead of resolving their justified demands the Chief Minister was pushing crow-bars into their hearts by making repeated statements that those in strike were self-dismissed from their jobs,” Mr. Revanth Reddy said.
“Cases under IPC sections 306 and 307 should be registered against ministers Puvvada Ajay Kumar, Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Errabelli Dayakar Rao for their provocative statements that led to a couple of RTC employees ending their life,” Mr. Revanth Reddy demanded.
The TPCC working president announced that Congress ranks would participate in the State Bandh called by TSRTC-JAC on October 19 in support of their demands. He also demanded that ministers T. Harish Rao and E. Rajender respond on the RTC strike since the former was honorary president of an RTC employees’ union till the 2018 Assembly elections.
Mr. Shabbir Ali said there appeared to be no clarity in the government to deal with the RTC strike as some ministers were asking the striking employees to call off strike and join the duties, while the Chief Minister termed the employees’ absence from the duties amounted to their “self-dismissal”.
Former deputy chief minister Mr. Damodar Rajanarasimha condemned TRS secretary-general K. Keshava Rao’s statement that merger of the RTC with the government was not possible and demanded that the Chief Minister should change his stand and initiate talks towards a resolution.
