Assembly nod for RTC merger

Hyderabad: The suspense on the merger of TSRTC with the state government ended on Sunday with the passage of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (Absorption of Employees into Government Service) Bill 2023 in the Assembly by voice vote minutes before adjourning of the House sine die.

Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan after due consideration of the draft bill gave her consent to the same paving way for the merger of TSRTC with certain recommendations in the morning. The Governor would now review the Bill which has been passed and would be sent for her approval to see whether the recommendations made by her have been incorporated or not. Sources said that it would take a day or two for the Bill to be sent to her for approval.

Introducing the bill in the House, Transport Minister P Ajay Kumar said the merger of the RTC with the government would help the employees get higher salaries and would help in safeguarding the the properties of the RTC.

Earlier, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said the Governor had created an unwanted controversy over the bill pertaining to the consideration of the TSRTC workers as the employees of the state government. “She has asked for many clarifications. Don’t know why she had kept the bill with her. Now that the Governor has sent, we thank her,” said the CM.

He said the government tried to save the RTC by allocating Rs 1,500 crore annually, but it was unable to overcome the losses and the prime reason was diesel prices.

The corporation is facing a loss of Rs 2.5 crore everyday only on diesel. Some are saying that there is an eye on the properties, which is strange. The government has social responsibility to run the public transport hence the bill was brought.

The Governor gave her nod to the draft bill with a slew of recommendations which includes the ownership of the lands, assets, and properties of the TSRTC should vest with the corporation itself for its sole and exclusive use, even after the absorption of the RTC employees as government employees. She said the government should give an explicit undertaking to that effect. The assets should be finally divided, and the process completed between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh pursuant to the AP Reorganization Act.

She also recommended to clarify and assume the liability of clearing the arrears from the erstwhile APSRTC and the disciplinary proceedings be more humane and in tandem with the same service rules and regulations as the remaining government employees and the relevant service rules.