JAC seeks MPs' help to resolve RTC crisis

Hyderabad: With an aim to bring their 45-day agitation to the notice of the entire country, the TSRTC JAC has written an open letter to all the MPs urging them to draw the attention of the Centre towards the problems being faced by the employees following the adamant attitude of the Telangana government, which has refused to call them for talks.

JAC leader Thomas Reddy said they have sent letters through e-mails and post to all the MPs in the country seeking their support.

The Left parties and Congress assured them that they will take up the issue with their respective party high commands and other allies in New Delhi to get their support. The JAC wants the MPs to raise the issue in Parliament in one form or the other.

In the letter, the RTC JAC alleged that the TRS government was determined to foil the strike. All acts of repression are being applied on the striking workers.

So indifferent is the attitude of the government that the wages of the workers have not been paid for the month of September 2019 during which period they were on duty.

The families of 48,000 striking workers are on streets. The situation is so critical that about 5 workers committed suicide and 20 died of heart attacks, the letter highlighted.

Further, they stressed that the civil society considers that these deaths are not ordinary but instigations of the government. These deaths are to be treated as brutal murders by the government.

All Opposition parties and the civil society are extending full support to the strike, the JAC pointed out. Even the High Court of Telangana issued several directions to the state government to resolve the issue at the earliest, but the government exhibits utter disrespect to the highest judicial body of the state by not heeding to its directions.

This is enough to prove the despotic, atrocious and autocratic attitude of the state, the RTC JAC said in the letter.

The employees have put forward their legitimate demands to save the RTC from privatization and the strike is a result of the adamant and callous attitude of the government, the JAC said.

The JAC urged the MPs for intervention to save the public transport system from being privatised and ultimately vandalized.

"We request you to note that this is not the problem of the RTC and its employees alone but the common people living not only in Telangana but in the entire country," the JAC wrote in its letter addressed to the MPs.