After talks fail, RTC strike on

Hyderabad: All TSRTC buses came to a standstill from the intervening night of Friday as the employees' unions have gone on a strike following the failure of negotiations with the government appointed committee to resolve their demands particularly the issue of merger of TSRTC with the government.

Committee member Somesh Kumar said that the panel had urged the JAC leaders to give some time to the committee, but the union leaders wanted written assurances on their demands. "We met the JAC leaders three times and had detailed discussions.

We clearly told them that we will submit a detailed report to the government on all the 26 issues raised by them. We requested them to wait for some time and call off the strike.

But they wanted written assurance," he said. Following this, the state government warned the striking RTC workers that it would be forced to implement 'Plan B' and resort to steps like dismissing the employees who go on strike under ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act).

The government would use the buses of educational institutions by issuing permits and also use hired buses. However, this has pushed the passengers into a big dilemma as they had reserved tickets long back to go to their hometown for the festival.

With all trains and private buses full, the passengers travelling by RTC are in for great difficulty. Even commuting within the city would be a big problem.

One of the committee member and Managing Director of TSRTC Sunil Sharma said that nearly 2,100 hire buses are kept ready to operate from Saturday.

These buses would be operated with police protection. Apart from this, recruitment of drivers on temporary basis is being done as around 3,000 drivers will be recruited.

There are about 20,000 buses of educational institutions and these buses will also be operated by giving temporary permit with nominal charge of Rs 100 per day since the government has declared holidays.

The MD further said that after formation of Telangana, the government provided Rs 3,003 crore to the Corporation and gave more funds than allocated in the budget. However, it is not clear how they propose to handle the logistics issue.