The aggressive stand taken by Telangana Rashtra Samithi government headed by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on the striking employees and workers of Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has surprised many.
KCR gave a strict warning to the employees and workers that if they fail to report to duty before 6 pm on Saturday, they shall cease to be employees of RTC.
Even in future, under any circumstances, they will not be treated and considered as RTC employees.
While transport minister Puvvada Ajay Kumar said the RTC employees in Telangana were getting more salaries than their counterparts in other states and that the TRS had never promised to merge RTC with the state government, minister for animal husbandry Talasani Srinivasa Yadav alleged the strike was called by union leaders for their selfish interests.
KCR went to the extent of declaring that private buses would be given permissions to run as stage carriers and RTC would run limited services with outsourced employees, thereby hinting that he would not hesitate to privatise the corporation.
One wonders how the TRS chief has forgotten his past so easily. When he was leading the Telangana movement, he instigated the RTC workers to take up massive strike.
The RTC employees played a major role in Sakala Janula Sammme which went on for more than 50 days, paralysing the government.
On Saturday, a past video of KCR expressing anger at the erstwhile Congress government for arresting striking RTC employees and JAC leader Prof M Kodandaram surfaced.
The TRS chief was strongly defending the “democratic rights” of the RTC staff to agitate to resolve their long pending demands and warning the then government against its dictatorial attitude.
Now, KCR is following the same path of the previous governments in crushing the RTC agitation. No doubt, the strike causes a lot of inconvenience to the passengers, but it is the only way for the employees to agitate for their rights.
Since as a man who led the Telangana movement, KCR knows the problems of RTC workers, he should make efforts to resolve the issues, instead of intimidating them.
