The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation Joint Action Committee on Saturday decided to garner national attention to the strike and announced plans to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah to seek his intervention.
The TSTRC JAC went into a huddle in the morning with the leaders of the Opposition parties, including the BJP, the Telangana Jana Samithi, the CPI and the Telugu Desam.
Soon after the meeting, TSRTC JAC leaders E. Ashwathama Reddy, K. Raji Reddy, Thomas Reddy, and V.S. Rao spoke to the media.
“We will meet Home Minister Amit Shah and explain the [TSRTC] situation and request him to look into it,” said TSRTC JAC Convener E. Ashwathama Reddy. As the press conference was running at a time when Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was holding a Cabinet meeting, Mr. Reddy urged the TSRTC workers not to worry about the outcome of the meeting. He urged workers not to take any extreme measures, including resorting to suicide.
He also claimed that the Andhra Pradesh RTC had not been fully bifurcated and as long the division exercise was incomplete, the Telangana government did not have the power to make amendments or take decisions. “Whatever announcement comes, we should not worry. The strike will continue. Several issues related to bifurcation of the RTC are pending and the government cannot take any decision as the A.P. government will have to be involved,” said Mr. Reddy.
The TSRTC JAC announced its week-long strike schedule which would culminate in a Chalo Tank Bund programme on November 9.
Opposition parties reaffirmed their solidarity with the striking workers. CPI leader Chada Venkat Reddy said the workers should be looked at as ‘our own’ and the CM’s ‘stubborn’ behaviour was uncalled for.
TJS chief M Kodandaram too said that the APSRTC had not been bifurcated and all decisions which the Telangana government took would remain only on paper.
RTC workers began the strike on October 5, demanding merger of the RTC with the government, recruitment to various posts, among others.
