Hyderabad: The TSRTC strike called by its unions from June 11 was withdrawn on Sunday after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao approved an increase of 16 per cent in the pay of employees as interim relief (IR).
The salary bill of TSRTC will increase by Rs 200 crore at the rate of nearly Rs 16 crore per month. TSRTC already has a debt burden of Rs 3,000 crore on which it has been paying Rs 250 crore interest per year. The unions had threatened to go on strike and hectic negotiations were held on Sunday between the state government and the unions to avert the strike. The Cabinet sub-committee comprising ministers K.T. Rama Rao, T. Harish Rao, Etela Rajender, G. Jagadish Reddy and P. Mahender Reddy invited the union leaders for talks. The unions demanded 25 per cent IR till fitment (full salary) is decided, to withdraw the strike. The ministers met the CM at Pragathi Bhavan with this demand.
The CM agreed for 16 per cent IR to be applicable from July. He promised to give fitment or the full-fledged salary hike later, based on the recommendations of the high-level committee to be appointed by the state government soon on strengthening RTC.
