Join duty, CM tells TSRTC employees

Hyderabad: Pulling the curtains down on the 54-day old RTC strike, the state government decided to take back all the 48,000 striking employees and also decided not to go in for privatisation of the routes.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said that the government has issued orders to take back all the employees. He said they could go and join duty from Friday morning without any conditions.

The government also decided to permit the Corporation to hike the ticket charges by 20 paise per km from Monday onwards. This, he said, would help the corporation to mop up Rs 752 crore per annum.

As immediate relief to the Corporation, the government will release Rs 100 crore immediately, the Chief Minister said.

KCR said if the employees listen to his advice, he will see that there is a turnaround in the financial health of the corporation and from loss-making unit, it would become a profit-making organisation and they can even get bonus.

He called upon them to forget the unions and work in a disciplined manner. He said he will constitute employees' welfare committees in each depot headed by two ministers who would discuss the problems of the employees with the members of the welfare committees and find solutions.

He said when he was the Transport Minister, the RTC was in loss of Rs 1,380 crore but he ensured that the losses were covered and the Corporation had a profit of Rs 14.5 crore.

Meanwhile, he said he would meet five employees from each depot in next couple of days and discuss about his proposals to save the TSRTC minus the unions.

He will also explain the exact financial conditions of the corporation to them and will understand their problems. He would then submit a report on this to the Centre next week when he would be meeting the Prime Minister.

As far as the employees who either committed suicide or died of heart attacks are concerned, the kin of the deceased would be given a job either in RTC or in Government.

The Chief Minister said TRS government had always been employee-friendly but this time had to adopt a tough stand in order to make the employees realise how the unions and opposition parties play with their lives.

He said the only person who expressed genuine concern towards the problems of the workers was the Chief Justice of High Court.

He said when they met at Raj Bhavan, the Chief Justice has pleaded with him to come to rescue of the workers.