EU Demands RTC Merger with Govt
VIJAYAWADA: The APSRTC Employees’ Union Wednesday demanded that the state-owned transport company be merged with the government and its staff be paid salaries on par with the government employees.
Speaking at a press meet at Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS) here, Employees’ Union deputy general secretary P Damodara Rao said a state-level meeting would be conducted on July 7 and 8 at Vijayawada. “All the employees belonging to 123 RTC depots from 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh state would participate in the meeting. “We shall hold a rally on July 7 from PNBS to the Old Bus Stand in the city with all the representatives concerned,” he said.
He said that a meeting would be conducted on July 8 in which chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, transport minister Siddha Raghava Rao, labour minister Kinjarapu Achennaidu and irrigation minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao will be the chief guests. “This will be the first meeting of APSRTC employees after bifurcation, and we shall discuss the issue of regularisation of contract employees, job security for employees and other issues at the meeting on July 8,” he said.
Damodara Rao said that they would put forth a proposal for payment of salaries to RTC employees on par with government employees and also for merger of APSRTC with the government. “The services of only 12,500 out of the total 17,287 employees have been regularised. We request the government to regularise the services of the remaining employees,” he said.
State Employee’ Union conveners YV Rao, Sk Subhani and SS Rao, zonal president B Prabhakar, zonal secretary MD Prasad and assistant convener TV Bhavani participated.