After a gap of nearly 55 days, all the TSRTC employees, who struck work since October 5 in pursuit of their demands, resumed duty in all the six bus depot limits in the erstwhile composite Khammam district on Friday.
Consequent on the decision of the State government to allow employees to resume duty without conditions, employees of all depots reported, paving the way for near-normal operation of all services, including inter-district and long-distance services.
Before resuming duty, several employees assembled at the bus depot entrance in Khammam and paid tributes to their departed colleagues, including driver D Srinivas Reddy and woman conductor Neeraja who died during the strike.
The staff expressed their gratitude to mass organisations for extending support during their agitation.
RTC employees before resuming duty at Khammam bus depot on Friday. (Right) Women RTC staff paying tributes to their colleagues, who died during the strike, in Nalgonda on Friday.
Leaders of the Opposition parties, including the Congress, the CPI(M), the CPI (ML-ND) and the CPI, interacted with the staff at the bus depot and conveyed their wishes to the latter.
In a statement, the CPI (ML-ND) State secretary Potu Ranga Rao said RTC employees had spearheaded the strike to save the public transport entity.
In Nizamabad, there was jubilant mood among RTC workers as they resumed duty after 55-day strike in all six depots in the erstwhile district early on Friday morning. Though all the 2,800 plus workers, including diesel mechanics and employees, joined duty it would take a couple of days for the total fleet of 640 buses to become fully operational.
“We will try to operate all buses, including 22 Indras and 12 Garudas, but it may take a day or two. The workforce reported for duty in all depots early this morning. The strike ended on a happy note,” said P. Soloman, Regional Manager, TSRTC. Asked how much loss was incurred by the transport corporation in the region, he said mental agony was more than the monetary loss. “Calculation of monetary loss is complicated,” he said adding that the increase in ticket price might make up the loss to an extent.
Meanwhile, temporary employees did not turn up for duties. RTC authorities thanked them for their services during the strike period.
The RTC JAC expressed its gratitude to all the staff, people’s organisations, trade unions, TJAC and Opposition parties for their support all these days.
Bonhomie
In Karimnagar, it was cheers and bonhomie for the RTC employees who resumed duty on Friday.
Since the early hours, RTC workers arrived in large numbers to attend their duty following the call given by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao to resume work unconditionally. All the 10 RTC depots, which had seen agitational camps, were bustling with activity with drivers, conductors and other staff resuming work amid cheers.
At some depots, including Karimnagar town, employees paid tributes to the RTC workers who lost their lives due to ailment during the strike by observing two-minute silence. Around 3,800 RTC employees attended duty on Friday.
RTC commuters also heaved a sigh of relief with employees resuming duty.
Thanksgiving meet
Though the strike was not able to achieve the list of demands, it had displayed the spirit of movement that Telangana could learn from, said leaders of the RTC Joint Action Committee at Nalgonda on Friday.
We are very sad that 30 RTC employees died during the strike, but their aspirations will live. Each of the demands will be dealt with with the same spirit in future,” said Telangana Inti Party president Cheruku Sudhakar.
Addressing RTC employees, the thanksgiving meet organised by the JAC saw leaders from Communist Party of India, CPI (M), Telangana Jana Samithi and Telangana Vidyavanthula Vedika.
According to Mr. Sudhakar, the efforts of all employees to protect the corporation remained invaluable, however, the government should not blame the unions now.
”Unions are like oxygen to employees, they are constitutional. The ruling party should not forget that it also has its own affiliate unions,” he said.
