Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and Nalgonda MP Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday appealed to all political parties, employees unions and organisations to join hands to oppose the illegal dismissal of nearly 50,000 RTC employees by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao.
Addressing a live programme on social media platform, Facebook, on Wednesday evening, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Chief Minister was playing with the lives of more than 50,000 families by ordering the removal of RTC employees who participated in the strike.
Describing the move as illegal, and undemocratic, he said that KCR was trying to rule Telangana like a dictator.
“RTC is not KCR’s jagir (fiefdom). He was elected as the Chief Minister for a period of five years to serve the people. His job is to run the government and its institutions in a fair manner. He must realise that he does not own the government or its institutions,” he said.
Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Chief Minister’s decision was aimed at not only punishing the RTC employees but also at terrorising the employees of other departments.
“If KCR is not forced to withdraw his decision and hold talks with the employees to resolve their issues, he will take this as a precedent and repeat the same with employees of all other departments. If this is allowed, then tomorrow there will be no rights for employees and no unions to take up their issues. KCR will turn Telangana into a dictatorship,” he said.
The PCC chief appea-led to the Left Parties, the CPI and CPI (M), to review their decision on their support in Huzurn-agar byelections. He said that the TRS governme-nt has suppressed the rights of RTC employees and also dismissed nearly 50,000 employees in a single stroke. “How could CPI support the TRS in Huzurnagar byelections?” he asked, while appealing the CPI to review the decision.
