RTC, Employee Union Talks Fail, Strike To Continue

On the 22nd day of the Telangana bus strike today, the TSRTC management held talks with the employee union leaders of the corporation, but the union leaders said that the talks had failed and ended abruptly.

Speaking to the media after the talks held at Erramanzil, the employee union JAC convenor Ashwatthama Reddy said that while the union leaders had requested for a discussion on their 26 demands, including the merger of the RTC with the government, the RTC in-charge Managing Director had said that they would have talks only on the 21 demands pointed to by the High Court, and that there was no question of talks on a merger.

However, the JAC stuck to its guns about wanting the TSRTC to be merged with the government, and that resulted in an abrupt ending of the talks, much before the meeting was slated to end.

Reddy said that the talks should cover all the demands, and the possibility or otherwise of each demand should be evaluated through talks. He alleged that the management had distorted the High Court verdict. He also claimed that the JAC leaders were pressurized to call off the strike even before the talks had started, through manipulative behaviour. The JAC had wanted that eight of its representatives be allowed for the talks, but the management allowed only four, and the police prevented the other leaders from entering the venue. Also, the JAC leaders' cell phones were taken away before they were allowed to enter the talks venue.

Reddy said that the strike would continue, and that the JAC was ready to have discussions whenever the management called for them again.

For the uninitiated, following the High Court order the government had constituted a committee of EDs, and the committee had submitted its report to the in-charge TSRTC MD Sunil Sharma yesterday. The report was handed over to the transport minister, following which the minister held a meeting with the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. The CM then gave a green signal for talks with the JAC leaders.