The striking RTC employees took out a rally in Karimnagar on Friday demanding the government to increase their wages on par with the State government employees.
The RTC employees, including the women participated in the rally braving scorching sun. The rally started from RTC bus depot and passed through Telangana Martyrs’ Memorial and converged into a meeting near Sripada Rao statue.
Extending solidarity to the striking RTC employees, former Minister D. Sridhar Babu, former government whip Arepalli Mohan, former ZP chairman A. Laxman Kumar, former legislator A. Praveen Reddy and other Congress leaders also participated in the dharna programme.
Speaking on the occasion, Sridhar Babu said that the RTC employees never asked to increase their wages. It was Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who promised to provide RTC employees salaries on par with the government employees during the electioneering.
The RTC employees were only demanding the government to fulfil its promise of increasing the wage, he said.
100 buses operated
Nizamabad Special Correspondent adds: The RTC authorities managed to ply over 100 bus services from different bus depots in the district amid protests by the agitating employees on Friday. The buses were run with the police personnel escorting them.
Over 75 buses from Nizamabad, 10 each from Banswada and Bodhan and the rest from different depots transported passengers to their destinations on the third day of the RTC strike. Mostly hired buses were plied, said the RTC authorities.
The striking employees, meanwhile, took out a mock funeral procession with the effigy of management and burnt it before the bus stand here.
The CITU cadres led by its district general secretary A. Ramesh Babu expressed their solidarity to the agitating RTC staff. The leaders alleged that the management was trying to sabotage the strike.
SCR chips in
The South Central Railway here on Friday commissioned the DMU passenger train service to Kachiguda railway station to meet the passenger rush during the RTC strike. As soon as the strike came to an end the service would be cancelled, according to railway officials.
The train with eight coaches and 500 passenger capacity would make two trips every day. It would start at 7.40 am at Kachiguda station, arrive here at 11.40 am and leave for Kachiguda at 12.30 pm. Again, it would arrive ere at 10.30 pm by leaving Kachiguda at 5 pm. The train would make night halt here and leave around 3.30 am for Kachiguda, said T. Prabhu Charan, the station manager.
