Hyderabad: Political parties in Sakala Janula Samarabheri from Saroornagar stadium in support of RTC Strike on 26th day today slammed the State government for miserably failing to hold talks to end impasse. They fumed that the TRS Boss who used the RTC employees to achieve statehood was now deliberately suppressing them by escaping from holding talks on 26 demands, including merger.
They demanded that the Centre intervene in the issue as State government turned rigid and removed 48,000 RTC employees for participating in the strike.
They accused Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao of resorting to suppress the strikingly RTC employees and unions against democratic norms.
JAC Convener Ashwathama Reddy said KCR has threatened unions and RTC employees for going on strike. “It is our democratic right to protect RTC and our demands. We played role of a squirrel in Ramayana for statehood, irrespective of caste and religion and will continue our stir come what may”, he declared.
JAC leader Raja Reddy ridiculed the Chief Minister for stating to close unions by merging the RTC into the government. CPI leader Chada Venkat Reddy alleged that KCR was giving dictatorial rule and failing to end RTC crisis. “The Centre should intervene and resolve the RTC strike”, he demanded.
BJP leader Vivek accused KCR of providing ‘Tughlaq’ like rule by not addressing the RTC strike which reached 26th day. TJS President Kodandaram slammed KCR for autocratic rule. “If necessary, we will take up Million March protest on Tank Bund against the State government”.
Congress MP A Revanth Reddy came down heavily on the State government for its callous attitude towards the ongoing indefinite strike of TSRTC employees. He said the corporation was pushed into losses by the State government. Calling State Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao as a chameleon, Revanth Reddy asked Rao if the privatisation of TSRTC was part of ruling TRS party’s election manifesto. He alleged that Rao was trying to mislead the people by claiming that the issue of merger of the corporation was not in the agenda of the party. He also alleged that the state government was firm on giving 20% stake to industrialist Megha Krishna Reddy as part of its plan to privatise the corporation.
Revanth said the TRS government did not give permission to the employees to hold the public meeting in clear contrast to what the erstwhile AP government did. He said the AP government had allowed the separate Telangana activists to Hold sakala janula samme public meeting in the undivided state. Revanth, while citing that only one person of VAT is being imposed on petrol used in aircraft, he alleged that the state government was charging 27 percent of VAT from the corporation.
He also alleged that the state government was misleading the High Court of the state over the problems raised by the employees. Referring to the comments made by the state government that the distribution of the properties of the corporation has not yet been done by the central government, he said that the decision of the AP government to merge the corporation into the state government would also apply to the RTC of the state in such a case.
Telangana Jana Samiti The President Professor Kodandaram also spoke. He said that the people of the state were ready to hold Another million March in order to mount pressure on the state government to solve the problems of the employees of TSRTC. He made it clear that the employees of the corporation has been demanding the state government to protect their corporation and not pay their salaries. He also made clear that the strike has been launched to not only protect the properties of the corporation but also to ensure the merger of the corporation with the State government.
He also alleged that the CM KCR was misleading the people by claiming that the salaries of the RTC employees were on par with any other government employee. He added that the salaries of the employees of the corporation were much lower than any other government employee in the State. Kodandaram alleged that the State government was not allowing the corporation to increase the ticket fares whenever there was a rise in the prices of diesel. He also demanded that the state government reimburse the arrears that the State government owed to the corporation.