Hyderabad: Telangana State government to shoot off another missive to Centre on RTC dues

Hyderabad: It seems the Telangana State government is getting ready to lock horns with the Central government on the loss-making TSRTC and the ongoing RTC workers' strike. As the Centre holds 31 per cent stake in the RTC at the time of its creation, the State officials maintained that the union government also owed to pay dues to the corporation.

An official letter was already sent to the union government a week ago and the Centre was still not responding. Taking it seriously, the RTC management is contemplating to shoot off another letter to the NDA government and demand release of its share of money as dues to the crisis-hit corporation. Top officials said that the State government has been extending all possible financial assistance to the RTC ever since the statehood for Telangana granted in 2014. Since the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is also a shareholder in the State-run RTC, the Centre should also extend monetary help to the corporation. The Centre has not released its share of money to the RTC for the last four years. However, the officials did not divulge the details of its share of money owed to the RTC.

The issue of the Central government's assistance to the corporation and the pending division of RTC assets between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh under AP Reorganisation Act was discussed in detail in the recently held series of high-level meetings presided over Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. The issue of sending another letter to the Centre is under active consideration and the letter will be forwarded to the concerned union ministry once the chief minister gives his nod.