HYDERABAD: In a complete volte-face, the Joint Action Committee of State Government Employees’ Unions on Tuesday expressed their solidarity with the striking employees of the TSRTC.“We understand their problems. We are with them. It is not proper to say that we were working against them,” JAC chairman K Ravinder Reddy said after a meeting at the TNGO Bhavan.
The sudden change in the attitude of the government employee unions came as a surprise, as it was only two days ago that the leaders said they wanted nothing to do with the TSRTC strike because they were not consulted when the decision to go on strike was taken.
The call to wash their hands off the strike was seen by the opposition parties as an indication of ‘divide and rule policy’ of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to isolate the striking TSRTC employees union. After the government employees JAC received flak from several quarters, its leaders decided to back the strike. “We will always support the TSRTC workers and try to ensure their problems are resolved at the earliest,” said JAC secretary general V Mamata.
The leaders said that they would bring the demands of the TSRTC employees to the notice of the chief minister for an early resolution of the deadlock. They defended their decision in a meeting with the chief minister recently. Earlier on Tuesday, TRS Parliamentary Party Leader K Keshava Rao had reiterated that he was willing to intercede with the striking RTC employees on behalf of the State government if the chief minister assigned him the job. Speaking to reporters informally on Tuesday, Keshava Rao said he was moved by RTC workers committing suicide. He added that was why he had urged them to call off their strike on Monday. He said he was yet to be contacted by the TSRTC JAC.