Telangana State RTC unions to resume agitation today

Government did not respond to their offer to resume duties

In the absence of any response to their offer to withdraw the 47-day-old strike if the State government permitted the crew to resume duties unconditionally, the RTC unions on Friday announced resumption of their stir from Saturday which was suspended after the offer was made two days ago.

Speaking to media persons, convenor of the joint action committee of RTC unions Aswathama Reddy said there was no question of withdrawing the strike as the government had not responded to their offer. In continuation of the agitation, he said the unions will organise ‘Save RTC’ protest demonstrations outside all depots in the State on Saturday.

He asked RTC workers not to approach depot managers seeking to join duties. The JAC will meet on Saturday to chalk out its future course of action.

Expecting the government to respond positively to the JAC’s offer to call off the strike, a large number of workers gathered near depots on Thursday and Friday on expectations that they will be allowed to join duties. But, the depot managers did not let them join saying they had no instructions from higher ups.

On the other hand, a meeting of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao with officials on Thursday evening discussed the inability of the government to run TSRTC with its poor financial position. The meeting decided to await the judgement of the High Court on government’s decision to privatise 5,100 routes of the corporation.

Though the court delivered the judgement on Friday upholding privatisation of routes, there was no reaction from the government which disappointed the workers. Also, there was no initiative so far on the part of Labour Department to petition the labour court seeking a direction whether the strike was legal or illegal. The High Court had asked the Department to move the labour court within a fortnight.

Driver dies

A driver of Parigi depot of RTC Veerabhadraiah (42) died due to illness in Vikarabad. He was native of Mandipal village of Kulkacherla mandal in Vikarabad district.

Veerabhadraiah was hospitalised on Thursday evening and died on Friday morning. The RTC workers staged a demonstration with the body in front of Parigi depot on Bijapur-Hyderabad highway. During the demonstration, another driver Srinivas swooned and was shifted to Hyderabad for admission in hospital.

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