The Telangana government on Wednesday said that it had issued orders to release Rs 235 crore to pay the salaries of employees of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) for a 56-day period last year, when they had gone on strike.
Over 25 TSRTC employees had lost their lives as a fallout of the strike, which saw the active participation of 48,000 drivers, conductors, mechanics, and others employed with the corporation. The strike was finally called off after Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), who had maintained an adamant stance throughout the period, held talks with the employees and assured them that he will look into their demands.
"In accordance with the promise made by the Chief Minister, the state government has issued orders releasing Rs 235 crore from the Finance Department, to pay the salary amount of RTC employees for the strike period," a press note from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) stated.
Responding to this, V Chandrasekhar Reddy, state secretary of the Telangana Mazdoor Union (TMU) told TNM, "We welcome the move, but it feels like a diversion tactic, as many of our initial demands with which we went on strike, still remain."
The employees, who had begun their strike on October 5 with a list of 26 demands, had sought for the merger of the autonomous TSRTC with the government. Though they dropped this demand later, the workers had pointed out that the Telangana government was yet to pay dues that it owed to the RTC.
This mainly included reimbursement for providing free and concessionary bus passes to school and college students, journalists, police staff on duty, senior citizens, persons with disabilities and others.
"In fact, the reimbursement amount has only increased since the strike was called off. We would appreciate it if the state government paid the dues that it owes to the RTC at the earliest," Chandrasekhar Reddy said.
On November 28, when the striking employees decided to call off their strike, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao also announced a hike in bus fares to mobilise an additional income of Rs 750 crore annually.
He had also announced that the families of employees who died during the strike period would get Rs 2 lakh each as ex-gratia, besides a job for one member of the family.