Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao scored a point over his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday by announcing a 44 per cent fitment (salary hike) for the RTC employees. Mr Rao disclosed his plans of handing over the urban public transport system in the city (RTC buses) to the GHMC along the lines of global cities where the urban transport system is managed by local bodies. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has been asked to bear the Rs 200 crore RTC subsidy initially. He said that he would insist that the Centre bear the RTC’s losses as it owned 33 per cent equity in the corporation.
Mr Rao had earlier pushed Mr Naidu into a “defensive mode” by announcing 43 per cent fitment for TS government employees ahead of AP, in February this year. This had triggered a similar demand from AP employees, forcing Mr Naidu to follow in the footsteps of Mr Rao. But in RTC’s case, Mr Rao adopted a “strategic stand” by waiting for the Andhra Pradesh government to announce the hike first.
When Andhra Pradesh announced a 43 per cent hike at around 3 pm, Mr Rao surprised everyone by announcing a 44 per cent hike at around 4.15 pm, though the RTC employees had demanded only 43 per cent. Mr Rao “killed two birds with one stone” with this announcement — one he has embarrassed the Andhra Pradesh government and second he has won the hearts of Telangana State employees again as an “employee-friendly government”.
Mr Rao said, “The Road Transport Corporation (RTC) is a great organisation, but it had been deliberately pushed into crisis due to the flawed policies of the successive governments of united Andhra Pradesh. TSRTC now has a loan burden of Rs 1,900 crore and operational losses of Rs 400 crore. But we are confident of bringing RTC back into the green.”
Mr Rao added, “When I was transport minister in the late 1990s, RTC had accumulated losses of Rs 10.85 crore. But within two years, I wiped off all these losses and earned Rs 11 crore profits by adopting better policies.”
