On Monday, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has decided to privatise half of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation, said a report. This move will allow private owners to run buses under the control of the corporation to sustain it.
According to Deccan Chronicles, Telangana Chief Minister announced that when he was speaking after reviewing a report by the commitee headed by principal secretary, transport, Sunil Sharma on measures to return the RTC to profit. Mr Rao said the state does not want to privatise RTC but only wanted to strengthen it.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has said that there will be no talks with Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (RTC) employees, who are on strike demanding a merger with the government. "Under any circumstances, RTC will not be merged with the government and the government will not have any talks with those who went on strike," Rao said in a statement on Sunday.
"The chief minister said RTC is incurring losses to the tune of Rs 1,200 crore and has Rs 5,000 crore debts coupled with the ever-rising the diesel prices. When RTC is under such a bad situation, there is no question of having any compromise," said the statement. Rao also said that the government is of the firm opinion that there should a permanent end to blackmail tactics, indiscipline and actions that often create headaches.
The indefinite strike by employees of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) continued third day on Monday with both the KCR government and employee unions refusing to budge from their respective stands.
The government refused to hold talk or even take back 48,000 striking employees, issuing orders to recruit new employees and hire more private buses while Joint Action Committee (JAC) leading the strike ruled out calling off the protest till their demands are accepted. The Chief Minister also made it clear that the government has no interest in totally privatising the RTC and that it is taking all measures to strengthen the organisation.
KCR, however, directed officials to divide the existing TSRTC fleet of 10,400 buses into three categories. Fifty per cent of buses (5,200) belong to the TSRTC and they will remain under it. He said 30 per cent of the buses (3,100) buses taken on hire should be run under the TSRTC supervision and administration. Another 20 percent of the buses (2,100) belong totally to private operators and they will be allowed to ply as the state carriages. TSRTC is currently running 21 per cent hired buses.
For a third consecutive day, a majority of 10,500 buses of TSRTC remained off the roads, causing severe inconvenience to commuters during festival season. TSRTC bus services carry more than a crore commuters every day. TSRTC authorities claimed that they have made all arrangements to ensure that people do not face hardships in reaching their destinations on the occasion of Dasara festival. They said on Monday, 3,105 RTC buses and 2,013 hired buses were operated. They also claimed that more than 6,000 private vehicles, school and college buses and maxi cabs were operated.
(Inputs from Agencies)
