Decks have been cleared for the merger of APSRTC with the government. The state government on Thursday issued orders constituting a committee to look into the financial issues of the transport corporation. According to sources, this high-level committee is intended to examine the proposal put by the employees’ unions to make RTC one of the government departments.
The merger will ensure job security for Seemandhra RTC employees after the division of the state. The striking RTC employees were apprehensive about their future as the RTC could not survive in Seemandhra post-division. They wanted merger of the largest road transport corporation with the government.
After talks with transport minister Botcha Satyanarayana on Thursday evening, the state government issued orders constituting the committee to look into the financial aspects of the state-owned corporation.
“The merger will ensure job security for us post-division. Now, we are employees of the corporation. Once the merger is over, we will come under government service and there will be no problem in getting salaries, irrespective of losses or profits of the RTC,” a leader of RTC who participated in the talks with the transport minister, told Express.
‘’We wanted the merger of RTC with the government not only in Seemandhra, but also in Telangana. As the Telangana staff too should not face any problem post-division,” the leader added.
According to RTC employees, the daily revenue of the RTC was Rs 18 crore and the expenditure was Rs 19 crore. As of now the total accumulated losses of RTC was Rs 4,500 crore. After the division of the state, the RTC in Seemandhra could not survive, the employees contended. Now, the job security was ensured to around 1.25 lakh RTC employees in the united state.
They also wanted the government to pay the interests on the loans taken by the RTC and also payment of salary for the strike period. The employees demanded that the government should give an advance of Rs 30,000 each to regular employees and Rs 20,000 each to contract employees.
“The minister responded to all our demands positively. We wanted the assurance in writing. The employees would meet on Friday and discuss the same,” RTC Employees’ Union leader P Damodar said after the talks.
Deputy secretary, Transport, Executive Director (Admn) RTC, FA & CAO, and representatives from APSRTC unions will be in the committee. The committee will submit its recommendations within 100 days.