HYDERABAD: In a fresh offensive against the TRS government, BJP State president K Laxman on Friday blamed the government for the mess that the TSRTC is in now and wanted it to concede the demand for the corporation’s merger with the government.
“I fail to understand why Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who spends long hours with his AP counterpart YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on several issues, does not take a leaf out of the sibling State and concede to the demand of the TRSTC employees,” Laxman said at a news conference here.
The BJP leader said that the talks held by the three-member committee of officials with the Joint Action Committee of the employees unions of the TSRTC were just perfunctory in nature and no serious effort was made to understand the demands of the employees. It is the duty of the government to avert the strike and ensure that there is no disruption in transportation on the eve of Dasara festival, he added.
The committee, instead of resolving the issue, was bullying the employees with threats that it would invoke ESMA and PD Act if they went on strike. The government is forgetting that the same employees lent their shoulders for the Telangana movement and played a crucial role in the formation of the Telangana State, he said.
He said that if the TSRTC was in losses, it was because of the State government. “It had not released what is due to the corporation and on top of it, it had used up the employees’ share that should go to their provident fund and pension accounts.”
The BJP leader alleged that the chief minister is now planning a `1 lakh crore project in collaboration with the AP government only with an eye on kickbacks. Chandrasekhar Rao, who had fought against the excess allocation of river waters to AP, is now allowing diversion of Godavari waters from Telangana. His only motive is to make money out of it, he said.