All parties must support RTC stir, oppose dismissal of staff : Uttam

Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday appealed to all the political parties, employees' unions and organisations to join hands to oppose the illegal dismissal of nearly 50,000 RTC employees by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao.

Addressing a live programme on social media platform Facebook, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Chief Minister was playing with the lives of more than 50,000 families by ordering removal of RTC employees who participated in the strike.

Describing the move as illegal, undemocratic and unconstitutional, he said that the Chief Minister was trying to rule the Telangana State 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.

Uttam 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 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 TPCC Chief appealed the Left Parties, the CPI and CPI (M), to review their decision on their support in Huzurnagar by-election. He said TRS government has suppressed the rights of RTC employees and also dismissed nearly 50,000 employees in a single stroke.

"How could CPI support the same party in Huzurnagar by-elections?" he asked while appealing the CPI leadership to review the decision. He said Huzurnagar by-election was the best opportunity to teach TRS, the anti-workers government, a fitting lesson.

He ridiculed the TRS leaders who questioned his contribution for Huzurnagar Assembly constituency in the last 10 years. The TPCC Chief said that the TRS government brought no development anywhere in Telangana State.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said Huzurnagar has been a peaceful constituency since beginning and there was no enmity among political rivals. However, he alleged that TRS leaders were promoting sand mafia, rowdyism and other anti-social activities. He also alleged that the Congress workers were being harassed using police force.