Khammam: People heave a sigh of relief with RTC buses back on roads

Khammam: After protests for over two months, a sense of calm and happiness prevailed at the six bus depots in the district with the State-run Transport Corporation employees joining their duties on Friday. After Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's announcement of allowing the workers to join their duties, the employees were back at the depots with all smiles.

RTC JAC leader K Pratap, welcoming the decision of the Chief Minister, stated that it was a victory for the RTC workers. Another union leader YN Rao added that it was a good news for the workers who were fearing of losing their jobs.

It can be recalled that the Khammam became the epicentre of the strike with two of the workers committing suicides in support of the strike. While the RTC driver Srinivas Reddy immolated himself with petrol at his house in Khammam, another employee, a woman conductor, Neeraja, hanged herself fearing the job loss.

After the suicide by Srinivas Reddy, the opposition parties, especially the Left parties and others participated in the strike and took out rallies and held protests in support of RTC employees. The police, meanwhile, had also arrested many workers and party leaders. After that, in a third incident, a driver, who reportedly went into depression, died of heart attack taking the total count of deaths to three in the district during the 52-day strike period.

However, on Thursday when the CM asked the RTC workers to join the duties, they felt elated. Many of the employees distributed sweets at the bus depots after joining the duties. Nearly 2,600 employees joined their duties on Friday, informed the officials. After a long strike period, people finally heaved a sigh of relief as buses went on roads on Friday.