KCR must not practice vendetta politics with employees: Shabbir

Hyderabad: Former minister and ex-Leader of Opposition in Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir has strongly condemned TRS Government for denying treatment at RTC Hospital to employees who went on strike.

"This is totally inhuman and completely unacceptable. The employees have served the RTC for several decades and just because they disobeyed the orders of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao to withdraw from the strike, they cannot be treated in an inhuman manner. The employees are fighting for their rights and they have not committed any sin. By refusing healthcare to RTC staff and their families, KCR has again proved that he believes in the cruellest form of dictatorship," Shabbir Ali said in a media statement on Thursday.

Shabbir Ali said that the entire city was in a grip of viral diseases and those affected with them include RTC employees and their family members. By denying them healthcare, KCR wants to unleash atrocities so as to establish a reign of terror, he said.

The Congress leader said that over 48,000 RTC employees cannot be deemed dismissed just because KCR has issued an oral 'firman'. This is a democracy and every order needs to be in written form as per rules prescribed in the Constitution. Therefore, the Chief Minister cannot deny access to employees to hospitals simply by giving oral instructions. He warned that the officials of police and other departments should be cautious in following the oral orders of KCR or ministers as the implementation of any wrong or illegal order would land them in trouble in future. "Chief Minister and ministers will change after five years. But employees who go overboard to obey their orders will face the heat when the court or next government orders probe and take action," he said.

Shabbir Ali advised KCR not to practice vendetta politics on employees. "KCR personally targeted all political opponents and misused the police and administration to harm them. But he must learn to differentiate between political opponents and employees," he said.

The Congress leader enthralled employees of all government departments to unite and raise voice against the behaviour of the TRS Government against the RTC employees. "If you remain silent today or support KCR, then it will be your turn tomorrow. One after the other, KCR will finish off all unions and turn employees into slaves using cruel and inhuman methods," he said.