Hyderabad: Reacting to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s decision fixing a deadline for the striking employees of the Road Transport Corporation to re-join duty, the RTC employees’ joint action committee (JAC) alleged that the decision was creating new problems for the employees, and not solving the issues.
A meeting was held by the RTC trade unions on Sunday to discuss the future course of action and also to analyse Mr Rao’s comments on the ongoing strike.
JAC convener E. Ashwathama Reddy said that the comments of the Chief Minister about the striking employees is creating more panic among them.
He said that worried by the CM’s decision, “the employees feel the insecurity of their jobs and several have already taken extreme steps. It is high time for the government to hold discussions with the RTC employees and resolve the issues immediately.”
He alleged that the CM’s statements on the RTC employees’ strike were unfair. “How can the CM ask the striking employees to resume their duties even before holding talks on the issues and without even a mention of resolving them,” he queried.
The strike would continue and also the employees would take part in the programmes scheduled as part of the agitation, he affirmed.
The Chief Minister is also misleading the courts and advocates by filing false affidavits through bureaucrats, Mr Reddy said, adding, “Only a few employees have joined duty. Several employees are still on strike.”
Pointing to the privatisation of the buses, Mr Reddy questioned how 5,000 buses can be privatised, and what will be the employees’ position if the buses are privatised?
He said the Chief Minister wants to give loss-making routes to the private persons, but why would the latter consider running the buses which do not fetch any money, he queried.
“If the CM calls the RTC strike illegal, what should the strikes carried out during the Telangana movement be called? The strike will be intensified with the support of students unions, other employee unions and political parties,” Mr Reddy said. He said that the proposed programme of blocking the highways on November 5, has been postponed because students will be sitting their exams.
