The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday expressed its strong opposition to the Sunil Sharma committee recommendations on the functioning of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), alleging that the “government was hell-bent on total privatisation”.
BJP State unit president K. Laxman told mediapersons that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao under the guise of “strengthening” the TSRTC was going full throttle on privatisation. He said the proposal to buy 3,100 buses was not right. He condemned the plan to run 2,100 ‘Palle Velugu’ buses towards rural areas, saying that it it only reflected KCR’s “devious” game plan.
Mr. Laxman said that it was wrong on the Chief Minister’s part to blame the TSRTC unions for the privatisation idea and target them for taking part in the ongoing strike considering the key role played by them during the Telangana agitation.
Mr. Laxman asserted that the RTC unions had a right to go on a strike. The government’s stand of retaining only 1,200 employees in the Corporation was not acceptable, he added.
The State BJP chief condemned the police action in curtailing the ‘peaceful’ demonstrations conducted near the depots by the agitating employees. “The Chief Minister is acting like a monarch and the erstwhile Nizam and not as per the democratic credentials of the Indian Constitution,” he said.
“The Chief Minister seems to be conveniently forgetting the role of trade unions in the Telangana struggle but the people do remember it and also support the ongoing agitation,” he said.
Mr. Laxman urged KCR to take back the recent decisions taken on the functioning of the TSRTC and resolve the just demands raised by the workers. The BJP was firmly behind the RTC employees, he added.
