HYDERABAD: Allaying apprehensions that the State government was aiming to sell the TSRTC assets, Nizamabad Rural MLA and corporation’s new chairman Bajireddy Govardhan on Monday assured that nothing of that sort was on cards. In fact, he affirmed that he, along with newly appointed Managing Director VC Sajjanar, would strive to bring the glory days back to the corporation.
Speaking to the media after assuming charge, he said that the State government would not adopt the kind of policies that the Centre was formulating.
“They (Centre) are selling away Railways and other assets. We will ensure that this would not happen here and people’s sentiments are restored. We both were appointed keeping this sole purpose in mind. of us have been appointed. The Chief Minister is keen to ensure the corporation is on track,” Bajireddy said.
While stating that the RTC incurred a `2,500 crore loss during the pandemic, he said that the corporation was slowly but steadily getting back on track and finding ways to overcome these losses.
“Before the pandemic broke out, the RTC is used to earn around `13 crore per day. But the revenue has now dropped to `10 crore while expenditure continues to be at `18 crore,” he explained. When queried about the issue of delay in payment of salaries to the staff, he assured that they would be paid shortly. “Salaries were delayed sometimes. But they were not stopped altogether as it happened in some neighbouring States during the pandemic,” he said.
COVID-19, HIKED FUEL COSTS CAUSING LOSSES: SAJJANAR
Explaining the reasons behind the corporation suffering losses, MD VC Sajjanar said: “RTC has been facing Rs 8 crore deficit due to different reasons. Besides Covid-19 impact, the other main reason is 32.52% increase in diesel prices during past one-and-a-half years. Even the Centre failed to offer any financial stimulus package to bail out the corporation.”