The Telangana Rashtra Samithi government led by K Chandrasekhar Rao has virtually thrown up its hands for payment of salaries to the employees and workers of Road Transport Corporation (RTC) employees for the month of September.
The Advocate General for the state government told the high court on Monday that the RTC has just Rs 7.5 crore in its account, whereas it requires Rs 224 crore for the management to pay salaries to 49,000-odd employees.
Interestingly, the government told the high court last week that it would pay salaries to all the employees, including those 48,000 employees who have gone on strike, by Monday. It said it had money, but there is no accounting staff in the RTC since they, too, went on strike.
But on Monday, the RTC management suddenly changed its stand. It argued that the strike called by the RTC employees is against the law. However, the petitioner said that not paying salaries after working is also against the law.
If the employees had not gone on strike, the RTC management would anyway have to pay salaries to the employees.
If the management has no money, how could it pay? It means, the RTC has gone completely bankrupt and has no money even to survive. The management says it is operating buses to the full capacity. Where has the money gone?
There is no answer from the government to these doubts of the employees!
