The State government has taken a view that it was not possible to run the State Road Transport Corporation normally in the background of the present strike and the financial health of the corporation.
Nonetheless, it was decided at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday evening with officials to wait and watch the pending cases in court and the verdicts to be delivered before taking any decision on the RTC strike. The government will factor in all issues plaguing the RTC and the likely judgment of the High Court on Friday over the former’s decision to privatise 5,100 routes of the corporation. It will keep in view the financial condition of RTC and try to explore a permanent solution to the problem with the aim to provide better transport services to people on the basis of ground situation, a release later said.
The meeting discussed the ₹ 5,000-crore loan outstanding by the RTC, of which ₹ 2,000 crore was to be paid immediately. The corporation was also liable to pay ₹ 240 crore as salaries to staff for the month of September on orders of the office of Provident Fund. Another ₹ 500 crore was payable to the employees cooperative credit society besides payment of pending fuel bills and motor vehicle taxes for the last two years.
As many as 2,600 ageing buses had to be replaced with new ones. About ₹ 65-70 crore was payable every month to Provident Fund accounts of staff. In all, a sum of ₹ 640 must be spent every month to run the RTC.
The government was in no position to bear the burden in view of the economic slowdown. The RTC was also not capable of meeting the expenditure. Yet, there was a big question whether the corporation would overcome the stress even if the government extended support in a small way. The only option left to the RTC was to hike bus fares. But, it would invite adverse reaction from the travelling public.
