The Telangana State government on Tuesday stated that it is ready to examine the several demands of the TSRTC worker unions since they have voluntarily withdrawn their demand for merger of RTC with the state government. However, this announcement from the Telangana Chief Minister’s office came as a shock to the protesting unions, as no such voluntary withdrawal of the merger demand was made by them, say union leaders.
"We have not even been called to the negotiating table, then how can they say that we have dropped the demand for the merger of RTC with the state government? The Chief Minister is being misled," stated Ashwathama Reddy, working president of the Telangana Mazdoor Union (TMU) and leader with the Joint Action Committee (JAC) representing six of the TSRTC employee unions.
In the backdrop of the Telangana High Court’s directives on the RTC strike, the state’s Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao held a review meeting with the officials at Pragati Bhavan on Tuesday. A committee of RTC Executive Directors have been tasked to prepare a report after studying the demands and the report would then be given to the High Court within this week.
The press release from the Telangana CMO stated that the state government was willing to examine the demands, minus the demand for the merger.
“The trade union leaders initially announced that they would come for talks if only the state government’s announced the merger of the RTC with the government. They said merger was their first priority. But during the hearing on the RTC strike in the high court, they said they would not insist on the merger of the RTC with the government,” the CM reportedly told officials.
“D Prakash Reddy, counsel for the RTC trade unions, told in the court that they never stated that they (unions) would come for talks only when the demand of RTC merger with the government is met with. This is mentioned by the Honourable Chief Justice in his Orders. With this, it is tantamount that the demand for the merger of RTC with the government had been forsaken. The Court wanted the government to examine 21 demands as raised by the workers. In tune with the Court orders, examine those demands and for this study the demands,” the CM added.
Based on the instructions given by the CM, Transport Commissioner Sunil Sharma, who is also acting as the RTC MD, had constituted a committee comprising six members, to examine the 21 issues as directed by the high court and submit a report to the RTC MD in a day or two, read the release.
The statement from the CMO came as a shock to the RTC union leaders, who denied that they have relaxed their demand to merge the RTC with the state government. "Let them first call us to the negotiating table, all 26 points in our demand letter should be discussed. We have not relaxed our stand," JAC member Ashwathama Reddy said.
As part of alternative arrangements made in the backdrop of the RTC strike as it enters its 19th day, KCR has instructed RTC officials to take 1,000 more buses on rent. About 48,000 employees with the TSRTC began their statewide strike on October 5.