Lokesh rescues RTC driver

Vijayawada:Education and IT minister Nara Lokesh saved an APSRTC contract driver, allegedly suspended by the state-owned transportation company.

Lokesh stated that the suspension orders of the driver would be revoked, he would be taken back to work immediately and expressed his intent to meet him personally when he comes back to AP from his US visit, in a tweet on ‘X’ in reaction to the alleged suspension of an RTC driver when he danced before an RTC bus for a song from the film Devara, starring Junior NTR.

According to the RTC authorities, Nethala Lova Raju has been working with the RTC as an ‘on-call driver’ at Tuni Depot for some time. On October 22, he took a Palle Velugu bus to Rowthulapudi for the transportation of the students back to Tuni, covering nearly 35 km. While transporting the students, his bus was supposed to pass through a narrow road. A tractor, going in front of the RTC bus, broke down leaving no passage for RTC to go forward.

It was about 8.30 am to 9 am when the driver with no way to move forward alighted the bus and started to dance to a film song, it was captured and posted on social media and went viral in no time. The driver is in the habit of making reels and did so that day too.

The RTC authorities informed that he had been allowed to continue duty in the subsequent days until the issue came to their notice on Friday. Accordingly, the driver was asked to meet the RTC authorities at Tuni depot on Saturday but it was not materialised as the authorities were preoccupied with the visit of the executive director. On Monday, the driver visited the office and was asked to give in writing what had happened and was asked to report to work as usual on October 29.

RTC Tuni depot manager Nethala Kiran Kumar said, “The issue took place between Gidajam and Koduru villages when our on-call driver was bringing students on a Palle Velugu bus from Routhalapudi to Tuni. We came to know about his dancing before the bus on Friday. We have asked him to give in writing what happened on that day.

When he met me on Monday, he explained about it. He caused no trouble to the passengers by doing so. We have asked him to continue to work. We have not suspended him on the issue as he continued to work in the subsequent days from October 22 to 26.”