RTC Strike: HC Hears Govt Plea, Adjourns Case To Tuesday

The Telangana High Court on Monday conducted another hearing in the case related to the ongoing TSRTC strike.

The State government, represented by Chief Secretary S K Joshi, submitted an affidavit in the case and told the court that the advice given by it to pay Rs 47 crore to address four of the demands of the workers was not practical. It said that the total amount of immediate liabilities of the TSRTC were Rs 2,209 crore, including salaries, and nothing would be accomplished by paying out Rs 47 crore of that. And the Rs 2,209 crore was separate from all the long-term liabilities of the corporation, it added.

The government also told the High Court that the impasse over the ongoing strike would continue if the workers did not show flexibility in their talks with it (the government). It said that the employee unions were very well aware of the financial difficulties of the corporation, and were yet trying to arm-twist the government, by first walking out and going on strike when talks were still on and at a time when people were planning trips to their home towns for Dasara, and then by organizing a major protest at Tank Bund against the law on a day that the police department was already stretched due to the Ayodhya verdict.

A copy of the minutes of the proceedings of the State Cabinet to privatize the routes that fell under the corporation was also submitted to the court.

The court said that it would hear the cases related to the strike and issuance of private permits simultaneously, and said that the stay on the privatization of bus routes would continue until the next hearing tomorrow.

It also said that the hearing related to the extension of Dasara holidays due to the ongoing strike was over.

Meanwhile, the counsel for the TSRTC P V Krishnaiah requested the court to declare the ongoing strike of the RTC employees as illegal. This prompted the court to shoot back asking how it could declare the strike as illegal. Krishnaiah replied that the corporation came under ESMA, and that the strike was illegal as per the said Act. The court then asked the counsel to submit a government order declaring the corporation, which was a public utility, as coming under ESMA in order to consider it as an emergency service.

The court then adjourned the matter to Tuesday.