TSRTC Employees' Pending Salaries To Be Paid

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today said that the TSRTC, which had suffered losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic, would be brought back to normalcy, and asked officials to immediately pay the two months' pending salaries (50% of the salary per month) of the corporation's workers.

The CM instructed Principal Secretary (Finance) Ramakrishna Rao to immediately release Rs 120 crore for the salaries.

The CM also decided to increase the bus services in Hyderabad by 50%. He also discussed about providing job security to the TSRTC workers.

Speaking at a high-level review meeting at Pragathi Bhavan on the TSRTC, the CM said that the corporation was on track to earn profits when the coronavirus hit. "But we will yet revive the TSRTC," he said.

"The state government is protecting the state Public Sector Undertaking despite several difficulties. The government?is providing security to lakhs of employees of the state PSUs and their families. The Telangana government opposed tooth and nail the attempts made by some to privatize the power sector. It has also regularized thousands of contract employees of the electricity department, and protected their families. All of this when the Centre is privatizing PSUs including the LIC. I will not sleep till the TSRTC is put back on track. And I will protect the TSRTC as long as I am here.? Many employees and their families are dependent on the TSRTC. Moreover, this is the cheapest transport available for the poor. Hence, without thinking about the losses or profits that it is making, we will protect the TSRTC for the greater good. The government will financially assist the TSRTC," the CM added.

TSRTC officials informed the CM that due to the pandemic and with people preferring to use private vehicles, the occupancy rate of the RTC buses had come down drastically, which was resulting in the corporation incurring heavy losses. The CM instructed the officials to come up with measures to take the RTC back to its pre-coronavirus situation. He said that the cargo services introduced by the TSRTC had become a big hit, and expressed hoped that like the Indian Railways, the TSRTC would also earn profits through its cargo services.