Congress Demands That Government Talk To RTC Staff At Least Now

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Vice President Mallu Ravi on Friday demanded that the State government immediately hold discussions with the TSRTC employee unions' Joint Action Committee (JAC) leaders.

Speaking to media persons at Gandhi Bhavan, Ravi said that now that the JAC had dropped its main demand to merge the corporation with the State government, the one that the latter found most unacceptable, the government should not have any problem in discussing the other 25 demands.

The JAC had decided to drop its main demand keeping in view the future of the corporation and the growing number of losses of lives of RTC employees, and it was now the turn of the State government to show the same concern and reciprocate the gesture, he said.

He added that it was unfortunate that the State government had not responded even after 41 days of the launch of the strike by the RTC staff. It was impudent of the government to display such arrogance, he said.

He said that the RTC workers had played a crucial role in the movement for statehood for Telangana, and that as a gesture to honour their struggle, the government should still merge the corporation with itself despite the JAC dropping the demand. The Andhra Pradesh government had set an example by merging the APSRTC into itself, and the Telangana government should follow that, he said.

The people of the state had been suffering for well over a month due to the strike, and it was high time that the government ended it, he reiterated.

He warned the government that it would have to pay a heavy price if it didn't respond to the demands made by the RTC workers.