RTI Activists Allege TGSRTC Withholding Financial Data

Hyderabad: Activists have intensified allegations that the TGSRTC is failing to place details of its income, expenditure, and reimbursements in the public domain. They also alleged that the TGSRTC management has not been responding to Right to Information (RTI) applications for the past four years.

Activists claimed that even information related to government dues under the Mahalakshmi free bus scheme for women has not been disclosed. However, TGSRTC management told Deccan Chronicle that nearly 80 per cent of the dues under the scheme had been paid by the government and that most RTI applications have been responded to with the information sought.

Former RTC board director M. Nageswara Rao alleged that the then top management showed disregard for the Right to Information Act. “I submitted more than 100 RTI applications seeking details on issues such as government releases to RTC, loans taken by the corporation, and hypothecation of RTC lands and properties. None of them received replies,” he said.

He alleged that the RTC, a public sector undertaking, has failed to publish details of its income, expenditure, profits, losses, and loans for the past four years, keeping its financial affairs secret.

Maramreddy Thomas Reddy, general secretary of the Telangana Mazdoor Union for TGSRTC, alleged that the management and the government were acting in tandem. He said promises made by the present government had not materialised. He further claimed that reimbursements under the Mahalakshmi scheme and other heads were pending, with nearly ₹2,700 crore allegedly due from the government to the RTC, which he said was the reason accounts were not being made public.

The union demanded that the government clear all pending dues, stating that employees and retirees were suffering as their financial benefits were being delayed. It also sought the immediate release of account statements to employees and the general public.

Responding to the allegations, TGSRTC officials said most RTI applications had been replied to and that the specific complaints would be verified. They reiterated that a majority of the dues under the Mahalakshmi scheme had already been reimbursed by the state government.