No money to pay salaries

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Government has given another big shock to the striking RTC employees.

The government on Monday informed the High Court that the Corporation was maintaining poor financial status and hence it could not afford to pay the pending salaries for September month to the entire 49,000 workforce in the current financial crisis.

State Advocate-General BS Prasad presented a financial report of the RTC to court and briefed the judges that the cash reserves at the corporation was Rs 7.5 crore only as against the requirement of Rs 224 crore to disburse the salaries of all workers.

The counsel for the RTC workers' union took strong exception to the government's claim of the fund scarcity to pay the employee salaries.

The counsel questioned the government for not giving valid reasons on drastic fall in income generated through bus operations during the strike period. The Government claimed that all the bus services were operational, but the income is low, he added.

Sensing the government is not in a position to address the salaries issue, Judges adjourned hearing on the pending issue to October 29.

After Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao announced self-dismissal of all the RTC workers who were participating actively in the strike launched on October 5, the corporation stopped payment of salaries to all workers.

Challenging the RTC decision, the workers unions knocked on the doors of the court and requested to direct the government for the release of salaries.