Follow Jagan, merge TSRTC with government: Unions to KCR

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh government's decision to merge APSRTC with the government has created a sort trouble for the Telangana government.

TSRTC unions too have upped their ante demanding that the friendly TS government should emulate the policy of Andhra Pradesh.

Two unions-- Employees Union and Telangana Jatiya Mazdoor Union -- which had recently served strike notice have now come up with a suggestion that the government should take over the properties of the Corporation which they claim to be worth Rs 25,000 crore as per the government value in lieu of merging the Corporation. This they feel will not put any additional burden on the government.

The Corporation has been reeling under accumulated losses of Rs 3,000 crore and most of the depots are running in losses.

While the Corporation earns revenue of Rs 11 crore per day, it has an expenditure of Rs 12 crore.

The Corporation awaits reimbursement dues from the government to the tune of Rs 2,500 crore, the union leaders told The Hans India.

The Union leaders point out that what they were demanding was not a new demand. The state government had in fact issued a GO assuring to merge the RTC with the government in undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2013.

The GO was issued by the then transport minister Botsa Satyanarayana. The state government now needs to issue a fresh GO.

TJMU leader K Hanumanthu said Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao had promised to take up the merger much before his AP counterpart YS Jagan.

Separate state of Telangana was possible because of the active participation of TSRTC employees in the struggle, the union leaders said. They said the CM should remember this and should fulfil his promise of merger, said Hanumanthu.

The union leaders allege that State government was going slow on the demands of the RTC staff. The government has asked the leaders to first concentrate on overcoming the loss and strive to bring the Corporation into profits.

They further said the last time when RTC workers gave the strike notice in May 2018, the Chief Minister threatened that the RTC would be privatised and it would be the last strike in the history of the RTC.

They said just as the Andhra Pradesh government took a quick decision to fulfil its election promise, the TS government too should keep its word and merge the RTC with the government.