Sakala Janula Samarabheri: Centre Asked To Resolve RTC Strik

Leaders of various political parties attended the striking Telangana RTC employees' public meeting at the Saroornagar Stadium, the Sakala Janula Samarabheri, today, and slammed the State government for "failing to hold talks" to end the impasse.

They railed at the TRS boss and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao claiming he had used the RTC employees to achieve statehood and was now deliberately suppressing them by avoiding holding talks, and demanded that the Centre intervene in the issue as the State government had turned immutable and had even removed 48,000 RTC employees from service for participating in the strike.

TSRTC employee unions' JAC Convener Ashwathama Reddy started by claiming that KCR had repeatedly threatened the unions and the RTC employees for going on the strike. "It is our democratic right to protect the RTC and seek our demands. We played the role of the squirrel in the Ramayana for statehood, irrespective of caste and religion, and are paying the price now. But we will continue our stir come what may," he declared.

A raft of political leaders followed by energetically lacerating KCR thereafter.

CPI leader Chada Venkat Reddy alleged that KCR was ruling dictatorially and completely indifferent to ending the RTC crisis. "The Centre should intervene and resolve the RTC strike," he demanded.

BJP leader G Vivekanand accused KCR of providing a Tughlaq-like rule by not addressing the RTC strike, which had reached an astounding 26th day now.

TJS President Kodandaram too slammed KCR for autocratic rule. He said that the employees of the corporation had been demanding that the State government protect the corporation and not pay their salaries. He added that the strike had been launched to not only protect the properties of the corporation but also to ensure the merger of the corporation with the State government.

He also alleged that KCR was misleading the people by claiming that the salaries of the RTC employees were on par with those of government employees. He said that the salaries of the employees of the corporation were much lower than those of the government employees in the State.

Kodandaram also alleged that the State government was not allowing the corporation to increase the ticket fares whenever there was a rise in the prices of diesel, but was now claiming that the corporation was running in losses due to the employees. He demanded that the State government immediately reimburse the arrears that it owed to the corporation, if it was serious about turning the latter profitable.

"If necessary, we will take up another Million March protest on Tank Bund against the State government," he said.

Congress MP A Revanth Reddy came down heavily on the State government for its "callous attitude" towards the strike. He said that the corporation had been pushed into losses by the State government, and not the employees. For example, he said that only 1% VAT was being imposed on petrol used in aircraft, but the State government was charging 27% of VAT from the corporation.

Calling State Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao a chameleon, Reddy said that the latter was trying to mislead the people by claiming that the issue of the merger of the corporation was not in the manifesto of the TRS. He also alleged that the State government was firm on giving 20% stake to industrialist "Megha" Krishna Reddy as part of its plan to privatise the corporation.

Revanth Reddy said that it was also striking that the TRS government did not give permission to the employees to hold the public meeting, in sharp contrast to what the erstwhile united AP government had done. He said that the AP government had allowed the separate Telangana activists to hold a Sakala Janula Samme public meeting.

Reddy also alleged that the State government was misleading the High Court about the problems raised by the employees.