A day after TRS general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP K Keshav Rao appealed to the TSRTC employees to call off the strike and hold talks with the government, leaders of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the employee unions have snubbed this appeal. “We did not receive any invitation from Keshav Rao for the talks,” JAC convenor Ashwathama Reddy told TNM.
“In what capacity did Keshav Rao write the open letter? He is not part of the government. If we receive any communication from the government, we are willing to have a dialogue,” Raji Reddy, the co-convenor of the JAC, clarified.
In his open letter, Keshav Rao, who is a close aide and advisor of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, asked the employees to call off the strike in the wake of the suicides by two TSRTC employees -- Srinivas Reddy and Surender Reddy. “I appeal to RTC employees to call off their strike before it gets out of their hands; and sit with the government to sort out their issues in a legitimate fashion. The TRS government is always considerate to the issues of the RTC employees. In fact, it had given RTC employees a 44% increment in salaries, besides a 16% interim relief,” he wrote.
Rao asked the government to consider the issues of the employees, barring their prime demand of merging TSRTC with the government.
On Tuesday, former MP and Congress leader Konda Vishweshwar Reddy met Keshav Rao at his residence, and asked him to convince KCR to have a dialogue with the protesting employees. “KCR doesn’t pay heed to anyone. I thought he would listen to Keshav Rao at least, and maybe he can convince him,” Vishweshwar said.
Meanwhile, the TSRTC employees are continuing their strike. As planned, on the 11th day of the strike, the employees took part in the ‘Raastha Roko’ and have been blocking RTC buses at the bus depots and staging various protests across the state.
The TSRTC employees have been protesting since October 5, as the government declined to fulfil their 26 demands, including the main demand of merging TSRTC with the government. Following the protest, the government dismissed 48,000-odd employees for continuing with the strike and not reporting to duty within the stipulated time.