HYDERABAD: Economic slowdown has now become the State government’s new punching bag. It says it cannot rescue the ailing TSRTC as the receivables to its treasury were on a downward spiral, all because of the big R.
In other words, the present TSRTC is on the way out. From the ashes, a new TSRTC will emerge where it would be just managing private buses ferrying people across the cities and towns.
This was the crux of the latest review on TSRTC by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao after the 48,000 employees and workers offered to call off the strike.
The only request they made was that they should be allowed to report for duty.
Gone with the wind where all the 26 main demands including the most humane of them - provision of minimum facilities like restrooms at the bus stations, leave alone the main bone of contention - merger of the corporation with the government.
The sight of the TSRTC employees flocking the depots and trying to beseech the depot managers to take them back into duty was rather pathetic.
When the demon hunger bares its fangs, there is no force that could vanquish it.
Poor RTC employees were no match as they were on strike for the last one and a half month and have not received salary for September, the month they had worked. They have no demands now. They want their jobs back.
In the past, when employees called off the strike, the management used to consider the strike period as special leave so that the employees would not only get pay but also there would be no interruption in service.
The TSRTC employees are not evening demanding pay for the months they had not worked. But the government remains unmoved.
Ever since they went on strike on October 5, everything went awry. The way the panel of officials held talks with employees unions did not appear as if there is a level playing field.
The officials had a condescending and supercilious approach to the union leaders, making a show that they were in a position of strength and that the employees were lowly weaklings. They were not ready to accept any of their demands.
It appeared the talks by officials were orchestrated only to comply with the law that the State would not have to take the blame of not initiating the process of conciliation.
Even as the employees are going through an agonising ordeal of whether or not they would be allowed to get back their jobs, the State government was having its way all along.
The High Court judgments one after the other came in its favour - first referring the strike to labour commissioner with a direction to resolve the issue or refer it to the labour court.
Then, on Friday, the High Court held that there was nothing wrong if the State government goes in for privatisation of 5,100 routes.
Now to roll out its plan of downsizing the TSRTC, the government says it cannot foot the bill of `640 crore per month to keep the TSRTC going when the economy is belly up.
It says it does not know what it should do with a pile of Rs 5,000 crore debt sitting on the TSRTC.
The immediate commitment of the TSRTC to various agencies is about Rs 2,000 crore. The corporation, according to government figures, is incurring a loss of Rs 1,200 crore every year.
Unless reforms are ushered in, the corporation will collapse under the weight of its ever-increasing debts and losses.
There is a feeling among the employees that there was nothing wrong to improve the efficiency of the TSRTC rather than dismantling it altogether.
The government could look for alternative sources of income which are not hard to find since the corporation has a number of valuable assets that could churn out cash if only they are exploited commercially without having to place the employees and workers on the chopping block.
But the State is choosing to let the fear of dismissal of work hang on them like the Sword of Damocles.
They are 48,000 in number and together with their families, they constitute about two lakh people. They are part of Telangana’s population.
The ruler should take care of his people, but so far there are no indications to this effect.