HYDERABAD: Contending the diversion of various funds collected from TSRTC staff by the management, the RTC JAC has chosen to take up an agitational path. The JAC (Joint Action Committee) claims that Provident Fund (PF) of about Rs 1,405 crore collected from RTC staff, Rs 934 crore collected from RTC Employees Thrift & Credit Cooperative Society (CCS), and the interest on it to the tune of Rs 182 crore were diverted by the TSRTC management.
As part of this, the JAC will hold ‘Chalo Bus Bhavan’ on August 7, besides organising a State-level meeting at the Sundarayya Vignan Kendra in the city on August 3. One of the JAC leaders who spoke to Express refused to disclose the location from where they would take out a protest march on August 7. “Since the official machinery will be alerted, prompting arrests even before the start of the programme, particularly in view of KCR’s instructions that no union would be entertained in the corporation, we do not want to name the place,” said the leader.
The JAC also has other grouses against the management. It has accused the TSRTC management of violating and undermining all the norms in place and forcing the employees to work for 12-16 hours. “In the wake of the RTC management’s decision to ignore and discourage unions, the corporation is violating legislation relating to trade union activities,” stated a representation recently submitted by JAC to the Labour Commissioner of Telangana.
The JAC will represent the matter to Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari after August 10. “We fought for and secured TS, but RTC is in a deplorable state. As KCR himself once famously said during the Telangana movement — now this is slowly turning into a fight for self-respect,” said TJMU (TSRTC Jathiya Mazdoor Union) general secretary K Hanumanthu, who is also a JAC leader. Meanwhile, those who have retired are yet to get their pension for several months.
Even as some staff received their salaries after the 20th of this month, employees claim the management is trying to break the unity within the JAC by releasing salaries a few days earlier for those in the districts.