Hyderabad: Even as the State government was ready to give 15 per cent Interim Relief as against 21 per cent demand, the TMU reportedly stuck to its guns for pay revision and salary hike. The talks between the Cabinet ministers and TUM leaders for the past two days failed to give a positive result.
Consequently, TMU honorary president and Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao on Sunday held another round of discussions with the RTC Union leaders and suggested to refrain from the proposed strike from Monday. On the other hand, union leaders JAC chief Raji Reddy has called upon the RTC working class to get ready for the strike. Bone of the contention was that the State government was unwilling to concede the demand for 21% Interim Relief as it will burden the Corporation of Rs 900 crore. It was ready to give only 15 per cent IR and will take a decision at a later date on the PRC and wage hike.
It may be mentioned here that the TRS Government gave 44% to the RTC while it gave 43 % fitment to other State employees. Though the TMU remained unfazed and appealing to the government to give another pay scale from April 2017 it supposed to get. Harish and other ministers like Mahender Reddy, KTR and Etala Rajender along with RTC Chairman Somarapu Satyanarayana could not convince the agitating TMU members.
Since the government mulls an option to divide the RTC into four corporations on the lines of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and was trying to use ESMA on the RTC staff if they failed to fall in line, the entire transportation system across the State will go haywire if they start strike from June 10 midnight. The government was unhappy with the development and plans some alternative. A decision is yet to come as the issue was again taken up to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at Pragati Bhavan. Harish Rao and Rajender are expected to talk on the issue this evening. (NSS)