More than 1.50 crore commuters were badly hit as nearly 1.2 lakh employees of the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) went on an indefinite strike from midnight demanding payment of 43% fitment allowance on par with the state governments' employees.
A total of 10,576 buses in Andhra Pradesh and 9,370 in Telangana remained off the roads on Wednesday causing extreme inconvenience to students, office goers and other commuters.
Meanwhile, the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, N Chandrababu Naidu and K Chandrashekar Rao respectively, made separate appeals to the employees' unions to call off the strike in view of the inconvenience being caused to the general public.
Simultaneously, the RTC management has begun an exercise to resume services by utilising contract employees.
Describing the strike as illegal, RTC Managing Director N Sambasiva Rao directed the nearly 6,000 contract employees to either restart working by tomorrow noon or face termination.
According to sources, the RTC management is most likely to invoke ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) against the employees if they fail to withdraw the strike.
The management has made it clear that it is not in a position to revise the salaries due to its weak economic condition and in view of the bifurcation process beginning on May 14.
Following the strike, the ever busy Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) and Jubilee Bus Station in Hyderabad remained deserted. Similarly, all bus stations in Andhra Pradesh including Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupathi also wore a deserted look on Wednesday.
The police of both the Telugu states have also imposed prohibitory orders at almost all bus depots. (INN)
filed in:Protests, TSRTC, Transport, Strikes, Bus Strike, Buses