RTC Strike: KK To Mediate Only If CM Directs Him

Rajya Sabha MP and TRS Secretary-General K Keshava Rao today said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had not asked him to hold talks with the striking RTC employees.

In an informal chat with media persons, Rao said that he had pro-actively called for talks between the government and the RTC employee unions to end the strike as two workers had ended their lives, and that neither the RTC union leaders not anyone from the State government had consulted him.

Rao said that he was happy that the RTC union leaders had accepted his proposal, and that if KCR directed him, he would mediate.

"I asked the government to end the strike by holding talks before the issue turns complicated, and am trying to call on the Chief Minister to talk to him and apprise him on the issue. To be clear, KCR did has not given me permission to hold talks," Rao said.

He also said that he did not know the opinion of the government on the strike.

Being a socialist, he was with the employees and workers, and not with the government, he added, and said that the employee unions should remain united.

"I have no objection to the RTC merger into the government, but it may not be possible," he said.