Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao will take a final call on Wednesday on the fate of the TSRTC workers who do not rejoin duty by Tuesday midnight. At the time of filing this report, 208 workers have reported back to work.
According to the RTC management, its total strength is 49,340 workers, out of which, around 1,200 workers are on duty, and the remaining 48,140 are on strike. After the Chief Minister set a new but final deadline of Tuesday midnight for workers to report to work, 208 workers have reported to work as of Tuesday 9 pm.
The Cabinet, which met on Saturday, resolved to issue permits for the rem-aining 5,100 routes being operated by the RTC to private operators after November 7, if the strike continues. The Cabinet had decided to take a final call on privatisation of RTC if workers fail to join duty by Tuesday midnight.
Mr Rao had announced at a press conference after the Cabinet meet that he would hold a review on the RTC strike on Novem-ber 6 to take stock of situation. He said if workers fail to rejoin duty, then the government would take a final call on granting permits for the remaining 5,100 routes.
He also held a review on Monday, in which he categorically indicated that if workers failed to join duty as per deadline, they would no longer be treated as RTC staff.
Sources close to Chief Minister’s Office indicated that Mr Rao had already taken legal opinion to plan a future course of action. They said that in coming two days, Mr Rao would likely to announce VRS for RTC staff, who were on strike to come for a final settlement, as labour laws dictate that the worker has to be offered a final settlement in case of termination.
The state government, sources said, had already asked the Centre to name officials from their side to be appointed to the RTC board of directors, but the Centre, which owns a share of 31 per cent, had so far not responded.
As part of its obligation to provide public transportation, they said the government is issuing permits to private operators.
