Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is likely to take cue from the precedent set by the Madhya Pradesh government. Translated, this amounts to announcing Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to RTC employees.
With the High Court giving the green signal on privatisation of 50 per cent of (5,100) RTC routes, the government has taken the exercise in this regard. Once 50 per cent RTC routes are privatised, there will be no work for half of the present strength of 50,000 employees.
If Mr Rao decides to allow the striking emplo-yees to resume duty after they call it off, he may announce VRS. Sources said that it will be only after Labour Court judgment that KCR will take a call on whether to allow the employees to take their duty or not. The state government has been maintaining that the strike was illegal. One is not sure about the likely decision of Mr Rao if the Labour Court decision comes in favour of the government.
At present there are 10,460 buses with TSRTC and of them 2,103 private and 2,609 RTC vehicles are in a stage of condemn. The state government has taken the decision to privatise routes as the RTC is not in a position to add new fleet.
Meanwhile, officials are working out details on the financial burden on the government if VRS is announced.
The question is how many employees will come forward to take VRS. If a majority of them are not keen on the offer, the Corporation has to pay salaries whether they have work or not. It should be noted that the government stopped recruitments in RTC a long time back.
Officials point out that on an average 4,000 employees retire every year. At this rate, it will take close to six years for 50% of the work-force to retire.
