Telangana RTC begins talks with striking employees

Hyderabad:  With the indefinite strike by the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) employees entering its 22nd day on Saturday, the Corporation management has started talks with its employee leaders to break the impasse.

Acting on the direction of the Telangana High Court, the TSRTC on Saturday morning invited the Joint Action Committee (JAC), which is spearheading the strike to press for various demands and in the afternoon began discussions to resolve the deadlock

The government had on Wednesday constituted a committee of TSRTC officials to look into the employees’ demands, except that for the TSRTC’s merger with the government.

The committee submitted its report to the government late on Friday. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao discussed the report with Transport Minister P. Ajay Kumar and officials. It was at this meeting that the Chief Minister directed the TSRTC to invite JAC leaders for talks.

JAC convenor Ashwatthama Reddy had earlier said talks would be held on all the demands. He denied dropping the demand of merger.

The talks are being held two days before the next hearing of public interest litigations (PILs) in the High Court. At the previous hearing last week, the High Court had directed the government to hold talks with the striking employees.

The strike by nearly 50,000 employees began on October 5, but the government declared the strike illegal and refused to hold talks with the employees. After the expiry of the deadline on October 5 evening, the Chief Minister declared that only 1,200 employees remained in the state-owned transport entity.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, said over 48,000 employees dismissed themselves by not joining duty before the expiry of the deadline. He threatened to deal firmly with those trying to disrupt bus services being operated by the TSRTC with the help of temporary employees.

The Chief Minister also directed officials to recruit more drivers and conductors on temporary basis and hire more private buses.

The strike took a political turn when the entire Opposition extended support to the strike. The JAC has been staging protests across the state. It also called a state-wide shutdown last week.

In between the the strike two employees committed suicide, while some others died of cardiac arrest, allegedly due to depression caused by the job loss and non-receipt of salaries for September.

KCR on Thursday stated that the TSRTC has no money to pay salaries to its employees. He even remarked that the Corporation is finished and nobody can save it from shutting down. He blamed the union leaders for the situation and hinted that the government will go ahead with the privatisation of the Corporation.