HYDERABAD: It is more than a week since buses went off the road and yet neither the government nor the Joint Action Committee of the TSRTC employees’ unions appear to show any signs of readiness to climb down from their respective positions to end the strike, which has crippled public transportation in the State. Both the sides have taken a belligerent approach, trying to wear the other down.
As the stalemate continues, the people, particularly those living in rural areas, are bearing the brunt. For the government, holding ground is coming at a high price. It is facing flak that it is not taking any steps to resolve the crisis. For the 48,000-odd employees too, it is no easy task to bite the bullet. They are facing the ominous prospect of losing their jobs as the government keeps saying that they are not on TSRTC rolls. Already the strike is hurting them as they have not yet received their September pay and, on top of it, they are being turned away from RTC-run hospital in Tarnaka in Hyderabad as they had “ceased” to be employees of the corporation.
The death of TSRTC bus driver D Srinivasa Reddy from Khammam on Sunday added an element of poignancy to the strike since Reddy ended his life unable to bear the prospect of losing his job. His colleagues who visited the corporate hospital in Hyderabad where he died while undergoing treatment, broke down on seeing his body.
Meanwhile, in pursuance of the chief minister’s decision that by Tuesday, the TSRTC should run its full fleet, the officials issued a notification on Sunday for recruitment of staff on a temporary basis, which clearly indicated that the State government is in no mood to listen to the employees’ unions.
As soon as the employees went on strike, the government came out with a clear statement that it was turning down their principal demand — merger of the TSRTC with the government. Then it said there would be no talks with them anymore and announced a slew of measures to pull the TSRTC out from losses. Before long the TSRTC would have a new look, the chief minister said and pointed out that it will be much smaller in size -- as it would be running only half of its 10,400 buses. About 30 per cent of remaining requirement would be served by buses to be taken on hire and then the balance 20 per cent of buses would be run by private operators who would be given stage carriage permits.
Isolating RTC staff
Then came another shocker. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao engaged the leaders of the Joint Action Committee of Telangana Government Employees in light-hearted banter, promising to take care of all their demands and asking them to wait till October 21 when the byelection to the Huzurnagar Assembly seat will be over. In fact, it was KCR who handed over a bouquet of flowers to the employees’ union leaders as soon as they met him at Pragati Bhavan. This apparently is intended to isolate the TSRTC employees who were seeking the support of the other unions of employees to make their strike more wide-spread. As feared, the government employees’ unions said on Sunday afternoon that they had nothing to do with TSRTC staff strike, leaving them alone in the battlefield.
Apart from throwing nearly 48,000 employees to wolves, the government appears to be washing its hands off its responsibility of providing affordable transport to the people as it wants to reduce its fleet by half.
Though the government insists that the private operators should run buses to villages also, it remains to be seen to what extent it would become possible as private operators always look for making profits.
Though the government says it would insist on the private operators to hike fares only when the TSRTC does, it may not go down well with them as diesel prices keep going up often. Rather than entrusting routes to private operators, the government would do well by calling the JAC leaders to talks and resolve the impasse at the earliest.