BackBus strike: TRS MP offers to mediate between TSRTC unions and Telangana govt
Keshav Rao's letter comes at a time when the joint action committee is currently on a war path with the TRS government CPI withdraws support to TRS in upcoming Huzurnagar by-election
PremiumHyderabad: Senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader and Rajya Sabha MP K. Keshav Rao on Monday offered to hold talks between the protesting Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) to put an end to the ongoing indefinite strike by the TSRTC unions. While no talks have been held, this is the first time since 5 October when someone from the ruling party has reached out to the unions. On the same day, and in a blow to the TRS, the Communist Party of India also announced its decision to withdraw support to the former's candidate in the upcoming Huzurnagar by-election, which will be held on 21 October.
"I appeal to the RTC employees to call off their strike before things get out of hand; and sit with the government to sort their issues in a legitimate fashion. The TRS Govt is always considerate to the issues of RTC employees. I urge the government to consider the RTC employees issues, other than the demand for merger of RTC into the Govt," said Keshav Rao's letter to the TSRTC unions, which is led by a joint action committee (JAC). The JAC is currently on a war path with the government, and has called for a statewide bandh on 19 October.
After the strike began on 5 October, Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao categorically said that all the 48,000-plus employees who have been abstaining from work will be considered as “self-dismissed". In fact, Rao on 12 October in a statement also termed the ongoing strike as “illegal and unauthorized" and even said that he would not hold any talks with the TSRTC unions, which are being led by the joint action committee they have formed.
So far, there has been no headway between the state government and the TSRTC unions. Among the latter’s demands are salary hikes (due since 2017 according to the JAC) and merger of the TSRTC with the state government. Ashwathama Reddy, a union leader from the Telangana Mazdoor Union, said that even though the letter was written, nobody called them for talks yet.
The CPI's decision to withdraw support to the TRS is also likely to impact the result of the by-election, as the former has a small vote bank in the Hindi assembly segment, which could tilt the result in case of a close contest. The fight is mainly between Padmavathi Reddy from the Congress and Sanampudi Saidireddy from the TRS. The latter had lost the same seat in the December 2018 state polls to N. Uttam Kumar Reddy (by a margin of over 7,000 votes), who is the president of the Telangana Congress Pradesh Committee and husband of Padmavathi.
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