Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday announced a 44 per cent hike in basic pay for all RTC employees working in the 10 districts of the new State leading to end of the eight-day strike. The CM also announced regularisation of services of 4,230 contract employees in Telangana with immediate effect.
Fifty per cent of the arrears of pay due from April 2013 would be paid in three instalments and the remaining 50 per cent in the form of Government bonds after five years.
In what was described a historic move since the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation was established in 1958, those who gained in the windfall include over 22,000 drivers and about 21,800 conductors, apart from about 6,700 mechanics, 3,900 supervisors and 275 officers and other employees.
In all, the pay hike will benefit about 56,740 employees of the corporation who are involved in the running of 10,479 buses from 95 depots across Telangana.
As soon as the Chief Minister made the announcement at the conference hall in the ‘C’ Block of the Telangana Secretariat, there was a roar of applause from employees and slogans hailing ‘KCR’ and ‘Jai Telangana’ rent the air in the Secretariat campus.
The last `pay hike was 24 per cent in 2009 and before that it was 12 per cent in 2005, 9.5 per cent (2001) and 9 per cent (1997).
Chief Minister’s announcement also brought the curtains down on the eight-day strike by the employees demanding salary hike.
