Hiring buses is not staff victimisation: TSRTC

Hyderabad: The TSRTC told the High Court on Friday that it was hiring buses to bring relief to the passengers. The move should not be seen as an act of victimisation of RTC workers or unfair labour practice.

Responding to the PIL filed by the TSRTC Karmika Sangh, challenging the tender floated by the corporation to hire 1,035 private buses, incharge corporaton managing director Sunil Sharma told the court that the system of hiring vehicles was adopted several years ago when the corporation could not afford to buy buses.

The petitioner stated that a resolution of the RTC board in 2013 said hired buses should not exceed 25 per cent of the fleet strength. The Karmika Sangh alleged the current round of hiring buses would take the figure in excess of 30 per cent.

To this, Mr Sharma said the RTC had 10,460 buses, of which 8,347 were its own and 2,103 had been hired while 571 buses were on standby. With this count, the percentage of hired buses stood at 20.11. If only 9,889 schedules were considered, it would be 21.26 per cent.

Mr Sharma said the tender process had been completed and allotment letters given to 287 bidders to run 1,035 hire buses.