Allow RTC staff to join duties: AITUC

Warangal: The State government needs to fulfil the justifiable demands of the TSRTC employees, the AITUC demanded. Speaking at a meeting presided over by senior leader Gannarapu Ramesh here on Friday, the AITUC State president S Balaraju demanded the government to allow the employees to join duties, unconditionally. It may be mentioned here that the RTC employee JAC said that it was ready to call off their strike if the government allows it to return to service without any precondition, the latter is yet to respond over the issue.

Balaraju demanded the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao not to prolong the issue further as the RTC staff is ready to join the duties. "Instead of thinking of privatizing the RTC, the chief minister should focus on protecting the Corporation which is doing a yeoman service to the people in the State. Referring to other issues, Balaraju demanded the government to establish a welfare board for the auto-rickshaw workers and hamalis (labourers). The ASHA and Anganwadi workers should be recognized as the government employees, he demanded. He asked the government to give a minimum pay of Rs 18,000 a month to all contract workers.

CPI Warangal secretary Mekala Ravi also spoke. On the occasion, the members elected the district body of the AITUC unanimously. Honorary president K Bikshapathi, president Gannarapu Ramesh, vice-presidents Damera Krishna and D Ravi, general secretary Panasa Prasad, Joint secretaries D Lakshman, M Srinivas, D Ramamurthy and treasurer Manda Sanjeev were present.