BackTelangana bus strike: TSRTC union leaders ready for talks with KCR govt
TSRTC unions will conduct a state-wide bandh on 19 OctoberThe unions have been on a warpath with the state govt since 5 Oct, when all of the 48,000-plus employees of the state-run bus services stopped coming to work
PremiumHYDERABAD : Mild tension prevailed out side Telangana State Road Transport Corporation’s (TSRTC) office (Bus Bhavan) when its employees protested outside, prompting the police to barricade the area. A handful of protestors also tonsured their heads near the Musheerabad bus depot in protest against the state government. Meanwhile, TSRTC union leaders also said that they are ready to hold talks with the state government or senior officials from the organization.
The TSRTC unions have been on a warpath with the state government since 5 October, when all of the 48,000-plus employees of the state-run bus services stopped coming to work. With the state government unwilling to talk to the unions so far, the matter has escalated with the latter only intensifying its activities in protest. TSRTC unions have formed a joint action committee (JAC), under which they are working together.
“All of us from the JAC (which comprises the TSRTC Employees union, Telangana Mazdoor Union and the Staff and Workers Federation (SWF) are ready to speak, but so far not one person has called us. We will go ahead with the bandh call that has been given by the JAC on 19 April," said Raji Reddy, a union leader from the TSRCT Employees Union.
A day earlier on Tuesday, the TSRTC-JAC also received support from the Telangana Non-gazetted Employees Organization (TNGO) and the Telangana Electricity Trade Unions Front, which had earlier remained non-committal on the matter. Aside from that, Rajya Sabha MP from the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi, K. Keshava Rao, in a letter appealed to the protesting TSRTC unions and the state government to end the impasse and conduct talks.
The TSRTC unions, which are also being supported by opposition parties, will conduct a state-wide bandh on 19 October, for which it has given a call. Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR), who has directed TSRTC officials to press into service temporary drivers to run the state buses, has so far not held any talks with the protesting unions.
“We will continue the strike. Not a single person has to come talk to us so far, and all of the roughly 50,000 TSRTC employees will continue to abstain from their duties till we are called for talks," said VS Rao from the Staff and Workers Federation (SWF). He added that a meeting which was to be held by the TNGO along with leaders from the TSRTC-JAC has been postponed for Thursday.
An opposition leader from the Telangana Jana Samithi said that other employee unions had not supported the TSRTC unions due to pressure from the chief minister. “KCR is trying to control non-party forums, but there was so much pressure from members of other unions that others have now been forced to offer support to the employees from the bus services who are on strike," he claimed.
Among the demands of the TSRTC unions are salary hikes (due since 2017 according to the JAC) and merger of the TSRTC with the state government (which KCR categorically said is not feasible). After the strike began on 5 October, KCR had said that all the 48,000-plus employees who participated in the strike will be considered as “self-dismissed" and in a statement later called the strike “illegal and authorized".
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