HYDERABAD: The three-member committee appointed by the Telangana government to hold talks with the TSRTC employees, after all nine of their unions decided to go on strike from October 5, failed to strike a deal with the miffed employees in a high-level meeting held in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
The meeting was held between the three-member committee, comprising Special Chief Secretary (Revenue) Somesh Kumar, Principal Secretary (Finance) K Ramakrishna Rao and Principal Secretary (Roads and Buildings) Sunil Sarma, and three unions under TSRTC JAC.
However, it was not the TSRTC JAC that gave the strike call, but the TSRTC JAC-1 along with nine unions under it.
The three-member committee was appointed by the State government, after a seven-hour long Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at Pragati Bhavan on Tuesday, to hold talks with the RTC unions and urge them to give the government more time to resolve the issues inside the corporation and also to request the unions not to create inconvenience to the public during the festive season.
The TSRTC JAC-1 with nine unions under them have declared that they would go on an indefinite strike from October 5 in a bid to coerce the authorities for merger of TSRTC with State government.
Even though the committee urged the unions to withdraw the strike, they unanimously decided not to call it off.
“We have demanded the committee to take all decisions by October 5 and that we are not willing to compromise for anything else other than the merger of TSRTC with the State government,” Hanumath Mudiraj, convenor of TSRTC JAC-1 said.
He further added that even if the government strikes a deal with TSRTC JAC, which has just three unions in them, the strike will continue as announced without any disruptions, since the consent of all nine unions is required to make such decisions.
It is learnt that officials concerned stated that they will have to use other plans in case RTC unions don’t withdraw their protest.