It may be for the first time in history, that a state government (TS) has gone a step further
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Hyderabad: Wednesday’s was a clear victory for the APSRTC staff who went on a eight-day strike, putting more than a crore of commuters in both states through a lot of hardships.
Though the High Court had called the strike illegal and had even prepared to initiate action against the strikers for violating court orders, the respective governments, which had been against conceding to the demands of the striking staff, meekly surrendered on Wednesday and agreed to their charter of demands. It may be for the first time in history, that a state government (TS) has gone a step further and offered more than what was asked for.
The AP government, which had publicly announced that it could not concede 43 per cent fitment due to its poor financial position, also finally agreed. The burden on RTC on account of the additional expenses through fitment will be Rs 1,500 crore per annum on the yet to be bifurcated APSRTC, which has been running at Rs 5600 crore accumulated losses. This is in addition to the loss RTC suffered – at Rs 2.5 crore per day – during the strike period.
And since Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao has hinted at a hike in passenger fares, which has been deferred by the AP government for the time being, the commuters, once again, will be at the receiving end in the coming days.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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