HYDERABAD: Dasara celebrations are likely to be impacted this year as all 50,400 employees of the TSRTC will go on strike indefinitely from October 5, in a bid to coerce the government to give the corporation its due. The 10,400 buses of the RTC will be affected.
The strike was finalised by all nine unions on Sunday, 15 days after the TSRTC JAC-1 gave a strike notice. They decided that the protest would begin on October 5 and go on until their demands are met.
The aim of the strike is to get the RTC merged with the state government, as was done in AP. “One of KCR’s crucial promises was that when Telangana was formed, the RTC would be merged with the government. But five years on, nothing has changed,” said K Hanumanth Mudiraj, convenor of Telangana RTC JAC 1. “RTC employees have not received any salary hike since 2017. Moreover, 6,000 people have retired in recent years, and no new staff have been recruited in their place. These are issues the government must address,” said Raja Reddy, president of the AITUC.
The RTC is also demanding that the money the government owes for subsidies must be reimbursed. “The government owes the corporation over `500 crore, given in the form of subsidies; and the government keeps saying the RTC is facing losses. These issues must be resolved at the earliest,” added Hanumanth.