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Irked by several discrepancies in the figures submitted by authorities of the Telangana government and the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC), the High Court has summoned Chief Secretary SK Joshi, TSRTC in-charge Managing Director Sunil Sharma and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner Lokesh Kumar.
The three senior officials will have to be present in court on November 7, when the hearing resumes on the ongoing strike by TSRTC employees, over the past one month.
At the previous hearing on November 1, the court had pulled up Sunil Sharma for submitting a false report on the dues to be paid to TSRTC by the government and GHMC.
The court pointed out that the Transport Minister itself had admitted that there were dues to be paid to TSRTC by the GHMC, which was contradictory to what Sunil Sharma had claimed in his response on November 1.
Meanwhile, employees of the TSRTC continued their strike for the 30th day on Sunday, a day after Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao set a final deadline for them to return to work.
The chief minister, while announcing privatisation of 5,100 TSRTC routes, had asked employees to return to work by November 5 midnight, failing which he threatened to privatise the remaining 5,000 routes.
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of striking employees on Sunday ruled out calling off the strike without the government meeting their demands.
JAC convenor Ashwathama Reddy asked employees not to be scared. He advised them to be courageous and not to compromise on their self-respect. Recalling that the employees had not returned to work despite the earlier deadline set by the chief minister, he said this time too, nobody will join the duty.
He said the chief minister had no right to dismiss any employee.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, another TSRTC employee died of cardiac arrest. JAC leaders said conductor Ravinder of Warangal district died due to depression. About 10 employees have died since the strike began on October 5. Three of them took their own lives.