After 8 years, TS nod for RTC pay revision panel

Hyderabad: Transport minister Ponnam Prabhakar on Saturday announced the setting up of a Pay Revision Commission (PRC) for the TS Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) employees and that the staff would get a 21 per cent fitment from next month.

The approximately 42,057 employees were waiting for eight years for the announcement.

The state government’s announcement will translate into an average hike that will vary between Rs.6,500 and Rs. 11,000 each. This benefit will also be reaped by 11,014 employees, who are slated to retire on April 1.

During an interaction with the media at Bus Bhavan here on Saturday, minister Prabhakar said that the fitment initiative will cause an additional annual burden of Rs.418 crore on the exchequer. “The previous government did not give any PRC in the last eight years,” he noted.

On the Maha Lakshmi scheme of free travel for women, Prabhakar said the response had been overwhelming. As on date, 24.16 crore women had availed of the zero ticket benefit, he said.

Prabhakar said that seeing the response to the Maha Lakshmi scheme, the government has decided to add 2,515 new buses to the corporation’s fleet by the end of May.

Taking potshots at BRS leader T. Harish Rao, who had stated that the Maha Lakshmi scheme had come as a curse for autorickshaw drivers, Prabhakar said, “He has asked the government to give each driver Rs.15,000 per month as compensation. I question the BRS leaders if they have ever given even Rs.15 to the drivers

“As transport minister, I have already met leaders of autorickshaw drivers unions. We are working on what best we can do for them,” Prabhakar said.