TSRTC workers knock at public reps' doors for redressal of woes

Hyderabad: The State government's decision to set up workers council to resolve the grievances of TSRTC employees in place of the trade unions does not seem to have proved effective.

The RTC employees are running from pillar to post for redressal of their grievances. With issues not getting resolved at depot level, the employees are approaching public representatives including the Ministers to get their grievances addressed.

The employees are hesitating to even lodge a complaint at higher level fearing backlash from their immediate head.

A Minister from erstwhile Mahbubnagar district had to talk to senior officials requesting him to allocate duties to one driver, who was not given any work by a depot manager for some time.

A driver G Prakash Reddy (name changed) said that his depot manager gave him memo stating that the collection of money as bus fares was less.

"What can I do if the passengers are less in number? I can be held responsible if I do not give ticket to a passenger but how can the officials question me when there are no passengers on board," he said.

A group of drivers from Musheerabad depot approached MLC K Prabhakar after they were transferred to HCU depot. The drivers said that they were allocated route no 222 from Koti to Patancheru which passes through heavy traffic jam areas.

"Every day we have to take up two trips and being a busy road with huge traffic jams we may not return on time for the second trip. If we continue for the second trip, we will be returning to the city at 1 am in the night.

We will not be having any buses to reach our houses and to overcome this we cancelled the service halfway through, which has been a practice for the last eight years. The officials have asked us not to come to the depot and transferred to HCU," said a driver.

Some employees alleged that one special number given by the Transport Minister P Ajay was also of no help as they said that there was no response.

When we dialled the number, it gets disconnected within second ring. We have posted on the WhatsApp several times but there was no response," said one RTC employee.

The employees alleged that the workers are denied leaves and are subject to harassment. There are some people, who are sustaining the pressure and even shifting their residences when they are transferred but many are vexed with the behaviour of the officials, said the employee.

The Minister P Ajay has been insisting on solving the issues in depots by the depot managers. However, the staff alleged that the issues were not resolved and termed that the welfare council could not fetch much benefit to them.