HYDERABAD: After the Telangana High Court directed the State government to hold talks with the striking TSRTC unions from 10.30 am on Saturday, the TSRTC JAC convenor E Ashwathama Reddy said that the unions were open to negotiations. Rebuking the government for dragging the strike on for two weeks straight and forcing them to call a statewide bandh, the JAC convener said the government must abide by HC’s orders and initiate talks.
“The attitude of the government is fuelled by negligence. If they did not have an answer for the High Court, then how will they give us or the public response as to why they are not initiating talks? They are negligent and reckless not to answer the public who voted them to power,” said Raji Reddy, the co-convenor of RTC JAC.
Further, the TSRTC JAC leaders clarified that there would be no withdrawal of the strike or the bandh, irrespective of whether government invites them for talks or not. “The chief minister has done us wrong. He has defied all the rules of the State and handled the RTC strike in an unconstitutional manner.
However, the strike will continue until we arrive at a negotiation,” said Thomas Reddy, RTC JAC leader.
“We will first ask the government to pay us Rs 825 crore of Provident Fund and Rs 547 crore of Cooperative Society funds, which were wrongfully taken from the RTC employees,” he said. The leaders also said that they would not hesitate to go on a ‘jail bharo’ strike if the government decided not to negotiate further.