Congress Sets October 19 Deadline For CM To Resolve RTC Stri

The Congress has set October 19 as the deadline for Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to resolve the RTC strike issue, and warned that its workers would lay siege to the CM's official residence Pragathi Bhavan on October 21 if things did not get fixed by the 19th.

This was announced at a joint press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Tuesday by TPCC Working President & MP A Revanth Reddy, former minister and ex-Leader of Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir, ex-Deputy CM Damodar Rajanarasimha and other leaders.

Revanth Reddy alleged that the State government was not taking any steps to end the ongoing indefinite strike of the TSRTC though it had already been 11 days since the launch of the agitation. He said that the employees had been forced to go on the strike as the honorary president of the TMU and State minister T Harish Rao did not respond to their problems, and that CM KCR who had once promised to remove the nails pierced into the feet of the employees with his mouth, was now hitting them with a heavy iron rod, and trying to dilute the strike by using his power.

That the CM was planning to stomping over the strike with a jackboot was clear from the fact that cabinet ministers like T Harish Rao and Etela Rajender who had played a crucial role in separate Telangana state agitation had turned silent on this issue, and that TRS Secretary General K Keshava Rao was not even able to get an appointment with the CM.

Stating that a veterinarian was booked for the death of a dog that lived at Pragathi Bhavan, he asked if the same State government would now book cases against cabinet ministers Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Puvvada Ajay Kumar and Talasani Srinivas Yadav for causing the deaths of RTC workers.

He also urged the workers to not commit suicides and promised that the Congress would stand by them.

Shabbir Ali alleged that the State cabinet ministers who had spoken against the strike were all traitors. He also asked TRS leader Keshava Rao on whose directions he had issued a statement urging the employees to withdraw their strike.

Former minister Damodar Rajanarasimha alleged that Telangana was witnessing a kind of dictatorial rule which was unheard of in the 28 other States of the country. He urged the intervention of the Centre to end the ongoing strike.